Prof. dr. Ali Ghufron Mukti, M.Sc., Ph.D., as the Chairman of the Covid-19 Research and Innovation Consortium, said that since five months ago, the government had supported the acceleration of handling the Covid-19 pandemic in Indonesia through the development of medicinal products and medical devices. In its development process, the role of various universities, government agencies, and communities has involved the industries' development of drugs and medical devices. According to him, hopefully, this development is considered as the government's efforts to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic.
He appreciated UGM researchers who take part in developing several medical devices, such as a COVID detection tool via exhalation or GeNose, a ventilator to an antibody-based rapid test device.
In his remarks about this tool, which can detect COVID from breath, is a pretty good result of innovation and hopefully can replace the PCR test's role later. "Hopefully, it can replace the PCR role. Three countries have developed this kind of tool globally, namely America, Israel, and Indonesia," Ali Ghufron said in a webinar of the UGM FKKMK Health Innovation Exhibition on Thursday (17/9).
Concerning the development of the red and white vaccine, he said UGM and many other universities were also involved in developing vaccines whose raw materials came from existed-viruses in Indonesia. It is expected to encourage national independence in vaccine production. "We want the population immunity to be developed in a measured and systematic manner so that we must produce it," he said.
He estimates that if each person will receive two shots of vaccine doses, at least 350 million vaccines are needed. "If the average price is Rp. 200 thousand, Rp. Seventy trillion is needed for the cost of vaccines," he said.
On the other hand, Prof. dr. Triwibowo, Ph.D., Sp.MK., a member of the antibody-based rapid test innovation development team from FKKMK UGM, said that their team's rapid diagnostic tool was developed as the result of collaboration with UGM researchers and Airlangga University. "A rapid test tool for antibody-based non-PCR diagnosis so that it can be transferred out more quickly in the field, providing advocacy to stakeholders, and can even carry out the prevalence," he said.
He also added that even though it has started to be produced and tested in several places, the community's downstream process is not easy due to regulatory and administrative problems. "Although there has been a relaxation of policies, the field's implementation has not changed much," he added.
UGM Ventilator researcher, namely dr. Bowo Adiyanto, M.Sc., said that his party had successfully developed a ventilator for critical Covid-19 patients. According to him, the ventilator with the V-01 ICU Ventilator brand, in addition to helping patients still breathe, and their working power to adjust the patient's ability to breathe. "This ventilator can provide breath aid, and the working system can adjust the patient's breath," he said.
Author: Gusti Grehenson
Translator: Natasa A