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Indonesia spends $45 million to procure millions of vaccine doses from China this year

Adrian Wail Akhlas (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Mon, December 7, 2020

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Indonesia spends $45 million to procure millions of vaccine doses from China this year A vaccine from Sinovac arrives at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport on Sunday. (Youtube/Setpres)

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ndonesia has spent Rp 637.3 billion (US$45 million) to procure a coronavirus vaccine from China as the government prepares for a mass vaccination program. The country received its first vaccine shipment on Sunday.

Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said Monday that the Health Ministry had spent the money to procure 3 million doses of a coronavirus vaccine from China’s Sinovac Biotech Ltd., as well as 100,000 doses from CanSino Biologics. The country received 1.2 million doses from Sinovac on Sunday, imported by state-owned pharmaceutical holding company PT Bio Farma.

“The [vaccine] procurement will take years to complete, from 2020 to 2021 and 2022,” she told reporters via a virtual briefing.

The vaccination process would be guided by the government’s criteria and the priority groups outlined by the Health Ministry, she said.

As suggested by the World Health Organization, the first phase of the vaccination program will target healthcare workers, Sri Mulyani said.

The vaccine shipment came as Indonesia plunged into recession for the first time in two decades as the government struggles to contain the outbreak and its economic fallout.

Indonesia passed a grim milestone of half a million coronavirus cases on Nov. 23, with around 6,000 new cases found on Sunday. The new cases brought the national tally to around 575,700, the highest in Southeast Asia despite the low testing rate.

The government has earmarked Rp 35.1 trillion to procure a coronavirus vaccine from the Rp 695.2 trillion COVID-19 stimulus budget this year. Furthermore, the administration of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has earmarked an additional Rp 18 trillion for the mass vaccination program in 2021.

So far, it has spent Rp 277.45 billion to procure syringes, safety boxes and swab alcohol, according to Sri Mulyani, as well as Rp 190 billion for vaccine refrigerators and vaccine carriers, among other products.

A decree signed by Health Minister Terawan Agus Putranto on Dec. 3 stipulates that the vaccines that can be used for the vaccination program in Indonesia must come from Bio Farma, United Kingdom-based AstaZeneca, China’s Sinopharm or Sinovac Biotech, or US pharma Moderna. The vaccine being jointly produced by US firm Pfizer and German company BioNTech also made the list.

Read also: Indonesia greenlights adoption of major COVID-19 vaccines

In Indonesia, the candidate vaccines being produced by the companies are either entering or completing phase three clinical trials.

Indonesia has been testing the Sinovac vaccine since August. The vaccine is also in late-stage trials in Brazil and Turkey, with the interim results of its efficiency in Brazil to be available by mid-December.

President Jokowi said after the shipment on Sunday that the government planned to receive another 1.8 million doses in early January next year.

Indonesia was also expecting shipments of raw materials to produce 15 million doses this month, as well as materials for 30 million doses next month, Jokowi said.

However, the vaccine still needed to be evaluated by the Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM) as the government continued preparing for vaccine distribution, he added.

The BPOM previously said in November that it would not grant emergency use authorization to a candidate vaccine from Sinovac in December because of a lack of data on its effectiveness.

“We have explained to the President that we cannot meet the deadline for emergency use authorization in the second or third week of December,” said BPOM head Penny Kusumastuti Lukito in a hearing at the House of Representatives. She said that approval could come in the third or fourth week of January 2021.

Read also: Efficacy and safety first: Experts urge government not to put vaccines on pedestal

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