Indonesia to Produce Merah Putih Covid-19 Vaccine in 2022

Jakarta, MINA – Indonesia targets to start producing the Merah Putih Covid-19 vaccine developed by Universitas Airlangga in the first half of 2022.

The Food and Drug Supervisory Agency (BPOM) has submitted a certificate of Good Drug Production Method (CPOB) to PT Biotis Pharmaceuticals on Wednesday which will later produce the Merah Putih vaccine.

Biotis is the first private pharmaceutical company in Indonesia that has met the requirements to produce vaccines for humans in Indonesia, after previously only PT Bio Farma which is a State-Owned Enterprise (BUMN) that can produce vaccines.

The Head of BPOM Penny Lukito said Biotis has met a series of requirements to be able to produce vaccines.

Merah Putih Vaccine is currently still in the second phase of preclinical trials on Macaca animals and will enter clinical trials on humans in the near future.

“Hopefully, the EUA (emergency use authorization) of the Merah Putih vaccine can be produced around the first half of 2022,” said Penny through a virtual press conference on Wednesday.

Of the several vaccine candidates developed in Indonesia, BPOM stated that the Merah Putih vaccine had achieved the most promising progress.

This vaccine candidate was developed using an inactivation ‘platform’ and the results of the first stage of preclinical trials on transgenic mice are claimed to show promising results.

Airlangga University itself is part of a consortium for the development of the Merah Putih vaccine, all of which is carried out in Indonesia.

Besides Merah Putih, there are five other Covid-19 vaccine candidates which are also being developed by the Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology, the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), the University of Indonesia, the Bandung Institute of Technology, and the Gadjah Mada University.

So far, Indonesia still relies on imported vaccines to vaccinate its 208.26 million population.

A total of 195 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine from the brands Sinovac, AstraZeneca, Moderna, and Sinopharm have arrived in Indonesia so far out of a total requirement of 426 million doses. (T/RE1)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)