Head Of BRIN Laksana Tri Handoko: Red And White Vaccines Are Priority

Head of the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) Laksana Tri Handoko. (ANTARA/Martha Herlinawati Simanjuntak)

JAKARTA - Head of the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) Laksana Tri Handoko said the development of the Red and White vaccine for handling COVID-19 remains a priority in the focus of BRIN's research and innovation activities.

"The target of having the Red and White vaccine is number one, but there is something much more important, namely how to create the capacity of researchers who are able to develop vaccines independently," said Handoko in his official statement in Jakarta, quoted by Antara, Tuesday, January 18.

Handoko said the ability to develop vaccines independently would be an important asset, because so far the vaccines circulating in Indonesia are licensed from foreign products.

"This is the focus and learning for BRIN to increase the capacity of researchers in vaccine development," he said.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic requires BRIN and other institutions to immediately conduct research on the provision of COVID-19 vaccines.

The Red and White Vaccine is one type of vaccine that is expected to be a vaccine produced by the nation's children.

To support the development of the Merah Putih vaccine, BRIN is building two main infrastructures, namely a production infrastructure with GMP standards and a phase 2 preclinical test facility in the Cibinong Science Center area in Bogor, West Java.

Handoko hopes that the two infrastructures will be ready by the end of the first quarter of 2022 so that they can immediately be used to help develop vaccines for humans and animals in the future, so that they are not limited to the Merah Putih vaccine for COVID-19.

The Head of BRIN hopes that the development of the Merah Putih vaccine will be completed soon and can be utilized by the public.

However, it should be understood that the manufacture and development of vaccines is not an easy job, because so far in Indonesia no one has experience making vaccines from scratch, he said.

All parties or institutions developing vaccines are working hard to create potential COVID-19 vaccine candidates to be able to help meet domestic vaccine needs, but all of them do require a joint process and effort to make it happen, he said. national consortium for the development of the Merah Putih vaccine.

Acting Head of the BRIN Life Sciences Research Organization, Iman Hidayat, said that Airlangga University (Unair) has made the fastest progress in developing the Red and White vaccine.

"Currently, the team whose progress is the fastest is the team from Unair in collaboration with PT Biotis, which has completed preclinical testing on macaques (monkeys)," said Iman when contacted by ANTARA in Jakarta, Saturday, January 15.

The seven teams in the national consortium for the development of the Red and White vaccine are Airlangga University, University of Indonesia, Bandung Institute of Technology, Gadjah Mada University, Padjadjaran University, the former Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) and the Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology.

"Each team develops the Red and White vaccine with different methods, ranging from vaccines based on virus inactivation to vaccines based on recombinant proteins," he said.