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Domestically manufactured ARV medication warmly welcomed
Indonesians living with HIV/AIDS now have wider access to antiretroviral (ARV) treatment as state-owned pharmaceutical company PT Kimia Farma has started producing Efavirenz, an ARV drug
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ndonesians living with HIV/AIDS now have wider access to antiretroviral (ARV) treatment as state-owned pharmaceutical company PT Kimia Farma has started producing Efavirenz, an ARV drug.
An Indonesia AIDS Coalition community organizer staff member, Irwandy Widjaja, said people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA), warmly welcomed the distribution of domestically produced Efavirenz at hospitals across the country.
'We've received ARV monitoring reports saying that Efavirenz, one of the ARV medicines produced by Kimia Farma, is now available at Fatmawati General Hospital,' Irwandy said in a press release on Tuesday.
'It's good news for PLWHA in Indonesia because with locally produced ARV, we can break our dependence on imported ARV drugs,' he went on.
Since 2007, the government has mandated the local production of Efavirenz by Kimia Farma. Efavirenz is the fourth ARV drug to be locally produced by Kimia Farma after Lamivudine, Zidovudine and Nevirapine. Other types of ARV drugs, including second-line ARV drugs, are still imported.
To date, most ARV drugs needed by PLWHA in Indonesia are imported from India and in many cases, there are often delays in drug procurement, which hampers the distribution of the drugs at hospitals.
Indonesia is a good example for other countries because in 2004, it adopted a drug patent policy that enables the local production of ARV drugs.
As it is becoming easier to access ARV treatment, AIDS in Indonesia can be better controlled both in the context of new infections and fatality rate reduction.
In 2006, the government committed to providing free ARV treatment to PLWHA. The fatality rate of PLWHA stood at 0.4 percent in 2014, down from 11 percent in 2006.
'The problem now is how we can reduce the price of locally produced ARV drugs as they sell for three to four times more than imported products,' said Irwandy. (ebf)
