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JAKARTA,
Oct 28 (Bernama) -- The Indonesian government will explore the
possibility of obtaining Hungarian medication for bird flu, the
ANTARA news agency reported Thursday, quoting Foreign Minister
Hassan Wirajuda.
"The President has asked me to try to gain access to bird flu
medication from Hungary or obtain a license to produce the
medicine," the minister said at the presidential office.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono made the request after
learning that the Hungarian government had recently invented
medicine to fight avian influenza which has already taken a
human toll in Indonesia. |
The Hungarian
medication would be an alternative way to obtain medicine to
combat bird flu in Indonesia, he said.
ANTARA quoted the minister as saying that the drug Indonesia was
now using to treat bird flu patients, Tami Flu, was becoming
hard to get because Roche, the drug's manufacturer in
Switzerland, was preoccupied with meeting orders from certain
institutions until 2007.
However, Roche would give a license to produce Tami Flu to other
pharmaceutical firms including to US companies due to pressure
from the US, Hassan said.
Tami Flu was
likely to be made |
a generic
drug to meet world demand for the medication.
The recent spread of bird flu to Europe will be high on the
agenda of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit to
be held in Busan, South Korea, next month, the Indonesian
minister said.
Hassan said developed countries like the US, Japan and Australia
which are also APEC members were paying close attention to the
bird flu outbreaks in Asia and elsewhere, he said.
At the
meeting with President Yudhoyono, Hassan informed the head of
state of his plan to visit Papua New Guinea (PNG) Thursday
evening for the
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post Summit
Dialog of Pacific Islands Forum in Port Moresby.
Hassan said
he would clarify on the latest developments in the Indonesia's
easternmost province of Papua which shares a border with PNG.--
BERNAMA |
