Three Empty COVID-19 Therapeutic Drugs At All Komia Farma Pharmacies

Azithromycin 500 mg product PT Pyridam Farma Tbk/ Antara

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) reported that as many as three variants of therapeutic drugs for COVID-19 patients experienced a lack of stock in the Kimia Farma pharmacy network.

Reported through the Farma Plus page, the drug stocks were reported to be empty in 3,114 Kimia Farma pharmacy networks in all provinces in Indonesia, including Immunoglobulin, Remdesivir and Tocilizumab.

Meanwhile, 672 thousand more therapeutic drugs for COVID-19 patients are still available in the pharmacy network, namely Azithromycin as many as 134 thousand, Favipiravir 349.9 thousand, Ivermectin 178.7 thousand, and Oseltamivir 9,971.

Indonesian Minister of Health Budi Gunadi Sadikin in a virtual presentation to Commission IX of the Indonesian House of Representatives, Tuesday, July 13 evening, said the government had allocated additional supplies of COVID-19 therapeutic drugs in stages until the end of July 2021.

Additional supply of these drugs, including Azithromycin as much as 11.2 million more than the estimated need of 1.5 million more, Ivermectin as much as 6.2 million more than the estimated need of 1.7 million more, Oseltamivir as much as 5.7 million more than the estimated need 4 ,2 million.

Then Remdesivir as much as 1.4 million of the need of 1.6 million, Favipiravir as much as 8 million more than the need of 12 million more, IV Immunogobulin as many as 73,660 of the need of 1.2 million more, and Tocilizumab (Actemra) as much as 3,800 of the total need of 60,162.

"We encourage the commitment of domestic and foreign industries to fulfill the supply of COVID-19 drugs. For Tocilizumab and IV Immunogobulin, we encourage global producers (Actemra-Roche) to prioritize the supply of their products to Indonesia and additional supply alternatives from other manufacturers such as China, through the distribution channel. Special Access Scheme (SAS) and donations," he said.

For the needs of Remdesivir, said Budi, it is being pushed to increase the quota of imported products from India, Bangladesh, Egypt and China. Meanwhile, Favipiravir was accelerated and increased domestic production.

"We also encourage even distribution of drugs between regions to prevent sporadic drug shortages," he said.

Director of Communicable Disease Prevention and Control of the Indonesian Ministry of Health, Siti Nadia Tarmizi, confirmed by telephone in Jakarta, Wednesday afternoon, that the government continues to coordinate with the pharmaceutical industry and its distributors to monitor the availability of drugs in Indonesia.

"The Ministry of Health also coordinates routinely with the pharmaceutical industry and distribution networks to monitor the availability of drugs needed to treat COVID-19," he said as quoted by Antara, Wednesday, July 14.

Siti Nadia Tarmizi added that the government was coordinating with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding the supply of COVID-19 therapeutic drugs which were hampered in the import process.

The Ministry of Health has also reviewed conditions in the field regarding drug prices for handling COVID-19 and issued a Minister of Health Decree No.HK.07.07/Menkes/4826/2021 to regulate the Highest Retail Price (HET) for drugs during the COVID-19 pandemic.