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View all search resultsHomegrown vaccine greenlit to combat resurgent COVID-19
President calls for year-end vaccination drive.
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A
uthorities are gearing up for another round of COVID-19 vaccinations at the end of the year, with the Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM) giving the go-ahead for the homegrown Inavac vaccine to be used for the public amid diminishing immunity and slowing booster coverage.
The BPOM on Friday granted emergency use authorization (EUA) for the first-ever vaccine jab to be fully developed by local stakeholders. Previously known as the Merah Putih vaccine, it was jointly developed by local drug firm PT Biotis Pharmaceuticals Indonesia and Airlangga University in Surabaya, East Java, using an inactivated virus platform, similar to the one co-produced by China’s Sinovac Biotech.
The announcement came at a crucial time, with Indonesia seeing a rise in COVID-19 cases driven by the new XBB strain of the Omicron variant. Recently the nation has seen some 5,000 daily new infections, more than double the 2,000 average reported in September and October.
Biotis CEO FX Sudirman, who was on hand at the EUA reveal, explained that the production of the vaccine was already under way. The company is expecting 5 million doses to be administered by the end of this year.
“The Health Ministry expects the vaccines to be ready to use by the end of November as currently, vaccine stock is limited,” Sudirman said at the press conference.
Talk of another round of state-led vaccinations had surfaced since mid-October, six months since the last booster shot rollout.
In an interview with The Jakarta Post in the lead-up to the Group of 20 Summit, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo said the government remained vigilant even as the public’s immunity against COVID-19 had started to wane.
