Invest in treating other diseases, not Covid-19

IT seems Prime Minister James Marape and the National Executive Council have been misled and have given away K10.2 million for a proposal to find a cure for Covid-19 that was just doing a systemic analysis or review of existing drugs around the world from literature and research done followed by a clinical trial.
K10.2 million is a lot of money given to a startup company who has no experience and capacity in this area even though the background of the shareholders and directors might have confused Marape and the NEC with their presentations to trust this new company and give them the money.
It is common knowledge that Covid-19 is not only a new disease but its epidemiology and history around the world is still not known and is changing.
The whole world is still searching and developing vaccines and possible treatment options for the different sequelae Covid-19 is posing including the immune mechanisms through drug interactions and genetic manipulations.
In PNG, the incidence and case fatality rate is low and like I have said, its natural history could be different and unique based on this.
The Government should perhaps put more money into the existing PNG Medical Research Institute to employ the best scientists and start researching and discovering treatments for existing major killer diseases such as TB, HIV/AIDS, cancer, heart diseases, diabetes and others. This K10.2 million given to Niugini Biomed Ltd is suspicious, too much and would be a waste of public money as a treatment for Covid-19 remains a long way from us and the focus is now only on vaccines.
I believe that this money in the pretext of finding a cure for Covid-19 and accessing Covid-19 emergency funds under the budget deficit stimulus package will go down the drain for nothing and our people will continue to suffer from the existing curable diseases which the Government should be looking at eradicating at this time.

Peter Bire
Acting Scientist