The BPOM also granted permits in September to several pharmaceutical companies to produce the drugs. PT Beta Pharmacon (Dexa Group) received a permit to produce favipiravir, locally sold under the Avigan brand. State-owned drug manufacturer PT Kimia Farma received the permit to produce a generic favipiravir product, tempo.co reported on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, permits to produce remdesivir have been granted to PT Amarox Pharma Global, which is a subsidiary of India's leading generic drug maker Hetero, as well as to state-owned pharmaceutical firm PT Indofarma and local private firm PT Dexa Medica.

Data from the Office of the Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister show that the government had previously given contractors the go-ahead to import COVID-19 medication such as remdesivir, favipiravir, oseltamivir and lopinavir-ritonavir, all of which will be distributed directly to hospitals treating coronavirus patients.

The data show that, by the end of 2020, the government expects to secure 670,000 vials of remdesivir from foreign sources, but it also expects the drug to be manufactured in the country starting in November.

In late September, Reuters reported that a late-stage study by Fujifilm Holdings Corps of its antiviral drug Avigan showed that it reduced recovery times for COVID-19 patients with nonsevere symptoms.

The Phase 3 clinical study of 156 patients in Japan showed that those treated with Avigan improved after 11.9 days, versus 14.7 days for a placebo group.

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