Indonesia will maintain its demand for the fair virus sharing scheme with developed nations ahead of the World Health Assembly meeting, despite its new partnership with the US, officials say.
Tjandra Yoga Aditama, the Health Ministry’s director general of disease control and environmental health, said Indonesia would push ahead with demands that developing countries have access to affordable vaccines derived from their samples.
“Our position remains the same,” he told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
Jakarta has said that it would not share samples of the bird flu virus, which has killed hundreds across the archipelago, unless richer nations and drug producers guaranteed to sell them the vaccines at reasonable prices.
Indonesia will participate in the World Health Assembly this May in Geneva — a forum that includes developed and developing nations and members of the World Health Organization — to negotiate the virus-sharing scheme.
However, the scheme has been moving slowly since it was launched in 2007 because vaccine producers have failed to guarantee accessibility.
Tjandra said the new comprehensive partnership with the US, which covered health cooperation and would be signed in March during the visit of US President Barack Obama, would not weaken Jakarta’s demands.
“Indonesia is leading developing countries in the demand... the current health minister was sitting as deputy chairman during the executive board meeting in Geneva this January and we have garnered full support from developing nations on the demand,” he said.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Obama will launch a US-Indonesia strategic partnership during the latter’s visit in March. Observers have said the virus sharing issue would be one of the topics discussed during their meeting.
Tjandra said the comprehensive partnership would facilitate cooperation on medical and health research with the US, details of which are still under discussion between Jakarta and Washington.
He said cooperation in health research was not a continuation of the Namru joint research — a naval lab project launched to study virus strings between the US and Indonesia that has sparked controversy over the request for diplomatic immunity for US staff.
“The Namru project has been officially terminated... it’s [the new deal] not the continuation,” he said.
Sidarto Danusubroto, a lawmaker from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle [PDI-P], said the new comprehensive partnership should make cooperation between Jakarta and the US stronger.
“Jakarta should not succumb to pressure from the West. I agree with the position of our former health minister who has been firmly defending our national interest,” he said, referring to former health minister Siti Fadilah Supari.
“The new [health] minister should also act the same... Don’t let the United States dictate our interests,” said the lawmaker and member of Commission I, overseeing defense and foreign affairs.
Fears have arisen the new Health Minister Endang Rahayu Sedyaningsih might yield to pressure from the West over the virus sharing scheme.
Some lawmakers have cried foul over accusations that she had given a sample of a virus to foreign researchers before her appointment as health minister.
Dian Triansyah Djani, Indonesia’s permanent representative to the UN in Geneva, said Indonesia was looking for a fair mechanism in the WHO that would allow developing countries to obtain the benefits of virus sharing.
“Lots of developing countries need affordable medicines and at one point we will also look into opportunities of producing various vaccines,” he said.
He said that developing nations, led by Indonesia, had one voice when it came to the virus sharing scheme.
“Indonesia is a promoter for developing nations and [the group] has been quite cohesive ... we are working toward a decision that will benefit us,” he said.
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