Bio Farma: 1.53 Million Doses Of COVID-19 Vaccine Potentially Expired

DOK ANTARA

JAKARTA - PT Bio Farma (Persero) said around 1.53 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine had the potential to expire in April this year.

"The vaccines that are in our stock for April will have a potential of 1.53 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine potentially expired", said Bio Farma President Director, Honesti Basyir, at the COVID-19 Vaccine Panja Meeting with Commission IX of the House of Representatives, reported by Antara, Wednesday, April 6th.

The COVID-19 vaccines that have the potential to expire are AstraZeneca with 1.095 million doses and Moderna with 436,730 doses.

While the COVID-19 vaccine, which has expired as of March 25, 2022, Honesti said, the number has reached 19.32 million doses.

"From the data we got until the end of March 2022, 19.32 million has expired, consisting of 18.68 million doses from the GAVI/grant scheme and 0.64 million from the B2B (business to business) procurement scheme", she explained.

Dua said that four aspects must be checked to ensure that the COVID-19 vaccine has quality by applicable standards, namely quality testing, safety testing, efficacy testing, and stability testing.

"This is what we are doing as licensees of the COVID-19 vaccine", she said.

Meanwhile, the Head of National Agency of Drug and Food Control (BPOM), Penny K. Lukito, said that the expiration date of a vaccine is part of the assurance of safety, benefit, and quality that is determined based on data on the stability test of vaccine products according to standards.

She added that the minimum stability test data required for an emergency use permit (EUA) for drugs and vaccines is three months. Then BPOM evaluates the quality data and stability test results which include, among others, identification, potency, sterility, including particulate parameters.

"If it is still stable for a period of more than three months, of course, it is possible to get an extension of the shelf life", she explained.