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Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine to undergo Phase III clinical trials in Bandung
Padjajaran University Medical School professor Kusnandi Rusmil said that he hoped the vaccine could pass the third phase as early as next January.
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An engineer holds up an experimental vaccine for COVID-19 that was tested at the Quality Control Laboratory at the Sinovac Biotech facilities in Beijing on April 29. (AFP/Nicolas Asfouri )
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potential COVID-19 vaccine developed by Chinese biopharmaceutical firm Sinovac Biotech is set to have its Phase III clinical trials in Bandung, West Java, the national COVID-19 task force revealed on Tuesday.
Padjajaran University Medical School professor Kusnandi Rusmil said he hoped the vaccine could pass the third phase as early as next January.
“We are very optimistic. We expect the clinical trial to be completed in January with a total of 1,620 samples tested,” he said in a press conference on Tuesday, following a meeting with President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo.
“Hopefully, it could be followed with immediate distribution by the Health Ministry.”
Read also: Potential COVID-19 vaccine arrives in Indonesia for clinical trial
In the same press conference, Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM) head Penny Lukito said the current phase was crucial and could make or break the vaccine.
“This is the most important and advanced phase, meaning that we are close to actually producing the vaccine,” she said, adding that the BPOM had ensured the validity of all testing protocols.
State-owned pharmaceutical holding company PT Bio Farma president director, Honesti Basyir, said the company expected to distribute 40 million doses of the vaccine per year as soon as the government authorized its widespread usage.
“We plan to expand it to 250 million doses per year,” he said.
According to the official government count, Indonesia has 88,214 confirmed COVID-19 cases with 4,239 deaths as of Monday.
