President Jokowi Names Indovac For Bio Farma's COVID-19 Vaccine: Clinical Trials Complete Soon, September Can Get EUA Permit From BPOM

Illustration. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has given a name to the COVID-19 vaccine produced by a BUMN. The name chosen is Indovac.

The vaccine is still being developed by PT Bio Farma (Persero) until now. "We are developing a COVID vaccine. While the name is SOE vaccine. But a month ago, the President was given a name. The name is Indovac, Indonesia vaccine," said Bio Farma President Director Honesti Basyir, during the Ngopi with BUMN event broadcast on Instagram @kementerianbumn , Monday, August 22.

The development of this vaccine, said Honesti, is a manifestation of the commitment of state-owned pharmaceutical companies in strengthening the resilience of the health sector in the country. He said, the Indovac vaccine was developed in collaboration with the University in the United States, namely Baylor College of Medicine (BMC) with a recombinant-based vaccine.

Furthermore, Honesti said that the COVID-19 vaccine has also been carried out in clinical trials involving 3,000 volunteers and the results are promising.

"We are almost done. Again, the results are registered at BPOM, thank God, based on the data we collected during clinical trials," he said.

After clinical trials are completed, Honesti targets Indovac to obtain an emergency use authorization (EUA) from BPOM in mid-September.

"God willing, hopefully in early or mid-September we will soon get the EUA from BPOM. So that later Indonesia is truly independent and we can produce it ourselves," he said.

Previously, it was reported that Bio Farma, as one of the state-owned companies engaged in the pharmaceutical sector, targets to produce 22 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine in the initial stage, which is planned for December 2022.

Not without reason, this BUMN COVID-19 vaccine has entered phase 3 clinical trials and is being carried out in the last two regions, namely Padang, West Sumatra and Makassar, South Sulawesi.

Director of Institutional Relations of Bio Farma Sri Harsi Teteki said that he would immediately prepare an EUL (Emergency Use Listing) or permit for emergency use of the COVID-19 vaccine in the fourth quarter if it was confirmed that all stages of vaccine manufacture were completed.

"We plan to produce 20 million doses of BUMN COVID-19 vaccine in December 2022. We hope that all planning goes smoothly," Sri said during a visit to the clinical trial center in Jeneponto Regency, South Sulawesi, reported by ANTARA, Wednesday, July 13.