COVID-19 – Indonesia prepares 339 million USD for to procure vaccine

Jakarta (Indonesia Window) – The Indonesian government has prepared five trillion rupiah (about 339.09 million U.S. dollars) to procure the COVID-19 vaccine this year which is currently under a clinical trial, Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto said.

The government has budgeted five trillion rupiah this year to produce 30-40 million doses of vaccine from PT Bio Farma, Airlangga told a virtual working meeting with the Indonesian Employers Association on Wednesday.

“Next year, 40 trillion to 50 trillion rupiah (about 2.7 billion – 3.3 billion U.S. dollars) will likely to be set up,” he added.

Airlangga explained that currently state-owned enterprise Bio Farma and China’s company Sinovac Biotech are conducting the third phase of the clinical trial involving 1,600 people.

The vaccine is expected to be produced in October 2020 with producing capacity of 10 million dosages per month until the end of this year when 40 million dosages would have been produced.

With the production capacity, it is expected that 120 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine can be produced annually, the minister said.

Airlangga explained, Bio Farma is also working with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation (CEPI) for the transfer of technology on vaccine formulation.

According to him, a private pharmaceutical company, PT Kalbe Farma, is also working with the Genexine Consortium from South Korea in the development of the COVID-19 vaccine.

The third phase of clinical trial of the vaccine will be carried out from September 2020 to March 2021 with an expected production of 50 million doses per year.

The conditional approval by the National Agency of Drug and Food Control (BPOM) is likely to come out in August 2021.

Meanwhile, PT BHCT Biotechnology Indonesia had also collaborated with China Sinopharm International Corporation (Wuhan Institute of Biological Products) to conduct the first and second phase of the clinical trials for the COVID-19 vaccine in China last April, the minister said.

Reporting by Indonesia Window