In an emergency situation, research on Covid-19 vaccines can be accelerated while still taking into account the safety, efficacy and quality standards issued by BPOM and meet WHO high standards like all the other vaccines that have been used in vaccination campaign in Indonesia.
Soedjatmiko hopes that with the Bio Farma-produced vaccine, Indonesia no longer needs to import foreign-made vaccines. “It’s cheaper and it will save our foreign exchange reserves. It can even be exported to other countries,” he said.
Read: Red-and-White Covid-19 vaccine being mulled for a fourth dose campaign
Bio Farma director Honesti Basyir said currently the firm has registered the phase three trial results to obtain an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) from BPOM. Bio Farma has also completed an audit by LPPOM MUI and will soon be certified halal.
President Joko Widodo is also said to have prepared a name for the vaccine and Bio Farma is in the process of registering the name with the Law and Human Rights Ministry’s Directorate General of Intellectual Property Rights. “Hopefully, on August 17, Indonesia will have its own indigenously-developed vaccine to break the Covid-19 chain of transmission in the country,” Honesti said. (un)