Terawan Denies BPOM Calling Nusantara Vaccines Not In Accordance With Medical Rule

JAKARTA - Head of the Nusantara Vaccine Development Team, Terawan Agus Putranto, denied the statement of the Head of the Food and Drug Supervisory Agency (BPOM) Penny K. Lukito, who said that the Nusantara vaccines did not meet clinical principles in the process of vaccine research and development.

The former Health Minister confirmed that the vaccine he is currently developing together with RSUP Dr. Kariadi Semarang, Diponegoro University is safe to use.

"The cell dendritic-based COVID-19 vaccine, which of course is autologous, individualized, of course is very, very safe," said Terawan in a joint working meeting with Commission IX of the DPR, Wednesday, March 10.

Terawan explained, since 2015 he has developed a cell dendritic process at the cell cure center of the Gatot Subroto Army Hospital, Jakarta. However, at that time dendritic cells were not yet devoted to making a COVID-19 vaccine, they were only used in cancer vaccine development research.

"We are familiar with cell dendritic and we have published it in the international journal for cell dendritic vaccines. But at that time I did publish it in the form for cell dendritic for cancer," he said.

When the COVID-19 outbreak hit Indonesia, Terawan tried to use these cells as a vaccine. This initiative later received support from a number of parties, including Dr. Kariadi Hospital and Diponegoro University.

Terawan thinks that the Nusantara Vaccine developed with the cell dendritic method can be a solution for people who are the exception to the criteria for receiving the COVID-19 vaccine.

Therefore, he hopes that the Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) will support the development process of the Nusantara Vaccine. On this occasion, Terawan also asked BPOM for support in overseeing the evaluation of the results of the 1st clinical trial of Nusantara Vaccine.

"Even though the PPUK (Clinical Trial Implementation Approval) has not been issued, I still thank BPOM and the Ministry of Health. Hopefully this can continue to be a good foundation," concluded Terawan.