Bio Farma Has Produced 90.1 Million Doses Of COVID-19 Vaccine, Here's The Process

Illustration. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - The process of delivering COVID-19 vaccines, both in the form of finished and bulk goods, continues. It is noted that from December 6, 2020 to July 22, 2021, the number of vaccines that have entered Indonesia is approximately 151.9 million doses, consisting of 123.5 million in bulk, which were received from Sinovac and another 22.4 million were received. in the form of a finished product received from AstraZeneca, and Moderna.

Bio Farma's Corporate Secretary and Spokesperson for Bio Farma, Bambang Heriyanto, said that the quarantine process for this vaccine was not only carried out for the COVID-19 vaccine in the form of a finish product, but also for bulk vaccines.

Even for bulk vaccines, they undergo a longer quarantine process, compared to vaccines in finished product packaging. Thus, Bio Farma cannot directly send the vaccine that Bio Farma received to the District/City Health Office.

"For example, for the type of Bulk vaccine received from Sinovac, Bio Farma must carry out quarantine such as an internal test by Bio Farma's Quality Control (QC), and need to obtain a release permit from Bio Farma's Quality Assurance. Bio Farma's production facilities," said Bambang in a written statement, Tuesday, July 27.

Even after the fill and finish process is complete, even the finished COVID-19 vaccine products still have to go through the quarantine process again, while waiting for the lot release, which is issued by the POM Agency.

Unlike the finish product type of vaccine, which does not require COR to be used by the public. The vaccine, in the form of a finished product, will undergo a sampling process from the POM before it can be used by the public.

Bambang added, in every process of filling and finishing bulk of the COVID-19 vaccine, there is something that must be noted. Namely regarding the shrinkage in every process of making a COVID-19 vaccine.

"That's what causes the number of doses received in bulk, the amount will not be the same as the number of doses when it becomes a finished product. Usually 10-15 percent lower than the bulk amount received, so from the target of 140 million doses of bulk vaccine The amount that Bio Farma will receive is estimated to be approximately 122.5 million doses of ready-to-use finished products," he said.

This shrinkage is normal in any vaccine manufacturing process, and occurs in any manufacturer in the world. This is caused by many factors, starting from the production process in manufacturing and during the vaccine administration process in the community.

"That's because in the production process starting from homogenization, filling, and packing, there will be vaccines that are lost during the process. Of course in this process there is wastage. there is also wastage. This also occurs in the packaging process," said Bambang.

In addition, the Sinovac vaccine produced by Bio Farma has an overfill or extra volume of vaccine prepared to anticipate the filling process into multi-dose vials.

The COVID-19 vaccine is packaged in 5 ml packages that can be used for 10 recipients. This means that each person will receive 0.5 ml. But in reality, Bio Farma will not put 5 ml of vaccine solution into the vial, but will be given an additional volume of between 5.9 ml-6 ml.

"Because in practice in the field, when taking 1 dose, it is usually a little extra to get an even 0.5 ml per dose of vaccine when injected," explained Bambang.

Thus, from the bulk that has been received by Bio Farma as many as 123.5 million doses, it is estimated that around 99.5 million doses of the finished vaccine will be produced for COVID-19 vaccine.

As of July 26, 2021, from the bulk of 123.5 million doses, we have only processed 110.7 million doses and produced around 90.1 million doses of finished product, with the number of finished products released in July estimated at 16.6 million doses. and ready to be distributed in August as many as 19.8 million doses.

"As of July 26, 2021 yesterday, the total number of finished COVID-19 vaccines has reached 90.1 million doses, 65.8 million doses of which have already received release lots, while the remaining 24.3 million doses are still waiting for release lots. from the POM Agency," concluded Bambang.

The total vaccines released for both COVID-19 produced by Bio Farma and finished vaccines (AZ and Moderna) were 87 million doses. As for the vaccines that have been distributed, a total of 77.9 million doses have been accumulated, consisting of 3 million doses of CoronaVac, 9.2 million doses of AstraZeneca, 65.7 million doses of Covid-19 Bio Farma.

The distribution process from Bio Farma continues to run according to the allocation given by the Ministry of Health using stock that has received BPOM release lots.