Erick Thohir: Bio Farma Will Cooperate With MSD To Make HPV Vaccine

SOE Minister Erick Thohir. (Photo: Mery Handayani/VOI)

JAKARTA - Minister of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) Erick Thohir revealed that Bio Farma as a health BUMN Holding will cooperate with an international pharmaceutical company, MSD (Merck, Sharp & Dohme) to make the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine.

This was conveyed by Erick after receiving the arrival of Joe Romanelli, President of Human Health International from an international pharmaceutical company, MSD (Merck, Sharp & Dohme) at the Ministry of SOEs, Jakarta, Tuesday, June 3.

"For this reason, Bio Farma as a state-owned health cluster is committed to producing domestic vaccines together with MSD (Merck, Sharp & Dohme)," he said, quoted from Instagram @erickthohir, Tuesday, June 4.

Erick said this step was taken as an effort to strengthen collaboration in making HPV vaccines in Indonesia. Given that this vaccine is very much needed.

"HPV vaccines are vaccines that are able to prevent cervical cancer that is often experienced by women in Indonesia," he said.

For your information, HPV can cause various dangerous diseases such as cervical cancer, anus cancer, penis cancer, and genital coolies. The data shows that Indonesia has the highest number of new cases of cervical cancer in Southeast Asia.

Therefore, HPV vaccination is considered an important preventive step for both women and men to reduce the risk of being infected with HPV.

MSD itself is indeed passionate about providing education in Indonesia related to the HPV vaccine. Last April, MSD Indonesia, a representative of MSD, held an event titled #NgobrolinHPV Live!: Night at the Library at the Jakarta Library, Taman Ismail Marzuki.

George Stylianou, Managing Director of MSD Indonesia, said that each individual has the same right to obtain credible health-related information, including HPV and cervical cancer. This event is expected to help eliminate the stigma surrounding the topic.