"Molnuvirapir is the same as the one that made Ivermectin. Is there a rival? There is. Just released by Pfizer today, but as far as in terms of getting approval, Molnuvirapir is still a bit behind," he said here on Monday.
Approval for Molnuvirapir has been obtained from the United States Food and Drug Administration, he noted. Thus, it is safe to be given to patients confirmed positive for COVID-19 who are yet to be hospitalized, he added.
"Based on clinical trials, this Molnuvirapir can reduce the chance of a person being admitted to the hospital by 50 percent," the minister said.
Pfizer has claimed that its antiviral medicine has higher efficacy, Sadikin said. It can cut down the chance of hospitalization due to COVID-19 by 80 percent, or even 85 percent, he remarked.
He said the therapeutic strategy or treatment is being pushed as one of the four government strategies for dealing with the pandemic.
Molnuvirapir, which is produced by a US pharmaceutical company called Merck, has issued licenses to eight companies in India for the manufacturing process, he informed.
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"Because the structure of the pharmaceutical industry in India is strong and cheap from upstream to downstream, so medical devices and medicines are much cheaper than prices in the world," he elaborated.
Meanwhile, Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan said that the government, in a bid to reduce national medicine imports, is trying its best to entice Merck and Pfizer into producing COVID-19 medicines in Indonesia.
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Translator: Andi Firdaus, Mecca Yumna
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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