JAKARTA (The Jakarta Post/ANN): President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo said on Monday (March 23) that Indonesia secured a supply of chloroquine, an anti-malaria drug being tested as a possible form of treatment for Covid-19, as countries scramble to stock drugs and medical supplies to fight the disease.
Jokowi said state-owned pharmaceutical company PT Kimia Farma produced the drug, which is extracted from the cinchona tree, a common plant in the country.
Jokowi said the drug would not be available at drug stores because it could only be prescribed by a doctor. The government, he claimed, had secured 3 million chloroquine tablets that would be available at hospitals. The drug is still under clinical trial at the World Health Organization, along with anti-flu drug favipiravir, also known as Avigan; a combination of two HIV drugs, lopinavir and ritonavir; and the Ebola drug remdesivir.
“We can produce the drug from a similar material called quinine sulphate, ” she told The Jakarta Post, stressing that more studies were needed to assess its effectiveness.
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