Erick Thohir Mourns The Death Of The Head Of The Sinovac Vaccine Clinical Trial From Bio Farma: An Extraordinary Loss For The BUMN Family

Minister of SOEs, Erick Thohir. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - SOE Minister Erick Thohir expressed his condolences for the death of the Chairman of the Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine clinical trial from Bio Farma as well as an academic from Padjadjaran University (Unpad), Dr Novilia Sjafri Bachtiar.

"Innalillahi wainnailaihi roji'un. Today, Wednesday (7/7) I received sad news from the big family of PT Bio Farma. DR. dr. Novilia Sjafri Bachtiar, M.Kes., Head of the Surveillance and Clinical Research Division of Bio Farma, passed away the world," said Erick Thohir as quoted from the Instagram account @erickthohir, Thursday, July 8.

Erick said that the deceased was a lead scientist and the head of dozens of clinical trials conducted by Bio Farma. This includes clinical trials of the COVID-19 vaccine in collaboration with Sinovac - which has been produced and injected into tens of millions of people in Indonesia, as an effort to be able to escape the COVID-19 pandemic immediately.

"His departure is a huge loss for us, the big family of SOEs, and also for Indonesia. God willing, what he has done becomes his charity of worship, and can continue to be a benefit to the nation," said Erick.

Previously, the chairman of the Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine clinical trial from Bio Farma as well as an academic from Padjadjaran University (Unpad), dr Novilia Sjafri Bachtiar died of COVID-19 infection.

Head of Unpad Public Communication Office Dandi Supriadi said, dr Novilia Sjafri Bachtiar died on Wednesday morning 7 July at Santosa Hospital.

Novilia is the Head of the Surveillance and Clinical Research Division at PT Bio Farma (Persero) and has contributed to the research of the Sinovac vaccine clinical trial since 2020.

In addition, he is a lecturer with extraordinary or non-permanent status at the Unpad Faculty of Pharmacy. For this reason, Dandi, who represented Unpad, also expressed his condolences for the death of a figure who contributed to the handling of the current pandemic.

Dandi also said that Novilia was one of the best daughters who graduated from the leading university in West Java. According to Dandi, dr Novilia received her higher education at the Faculty of Medicine, Unpad.