Bio Farma Can Production 20 Million Doses Of IndoVac, Next Year Can Be Increased 2 Times

The IndoVac vaccine is produced by Bio Farma. (ANTARA/HO Bio Farma)

JAKARTA - PT Bio Farma (Persero) PUMN Pharmacy is ready to produce the IndoVac vaccine. As an initial stage, maximum production reaches 20 million doses.

President Director of PT Bio Farma Honesti Basyir even said that this amount could be increased by another 40 million doses per year in 2023 with the addition of production facilities. Furthermore, production capacity can be increased to 100 million doses per year in 2024, depending on the need and demand.

"Then IndoVac can be used to vaccinate individuals aged 18 years and over en masse," said Honesti Basyir in a statement in Jakarta, Thursday, September 8.

Honesti said the development of the IndoVac vaccine has been carried out since November 2021, in collaboration with the United States Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) which provides vaccine seeds (seeded) with a recombinant protein platform based on yeast (yeast based).

Currently IndoVac has conducted phase 1 and 2 clinical trials, as well as in the phase 3 clinical trial process for ages 18 years and over.

"The use of the IndoVac vaccine technology platform is very profitable because it is compatible with the equipment and facilities available in our factory. In addition, this recombinant protein technology platform also has other benefits, namely it can be adapted to new variants of COVID-19," he said.

From the results of phase 1 and 2 clinical trials, he continued, IndoVac has also no less efficacy than other COVID-19 vaccines.

Honesti said that since July 2022, Bio Farma has been in intensive communication with the Food and Drug Supervisory Agency (BPOM) to fulfill supporting data, so that emergency use authorization (EUA) emergency permits are expected to be released in the near future, estimated in mid-September 2022.

At the same time, his party also proposed a halal certification of IndoVac. The vaccine, he continued, has passed an audit of the halal aspect of the Food, Drug and Cosmetics Study Institute of the Indonesian Ulema Council (LPOM MUI).

Bio Farma has also started clinical trials for advanced vaccines (boosters) since September 1, 2022.

"We have received PPUK (Clinical Test Implementation Agreement) from BPOM for clinical trials of the IndoVac booster vaccine. Furthermore, Bio Farma will conduct clinical trials of the IndoVac vaccine for children after receiving PPUK from BPOM," said Honesti.

Bio Farma conducted clinical trials of booster vaccines at Dr Hasan Sadikin Hospital, Bandung, and Prof. IGNG Ngoerah Hospital, Bali.

His party has also registered the name of the IndoVac vaccine with the Directorate General of Intellectual Property, Ministry of Law and Human Rights on July 29, 2022. "Currently it is still in the announcement stage. If there are no objections from other parties, then the process will go to the next stage until the IndoVac brand certificate is issued as a Bio Farma patent from the Ministry of Law and Human Rights," he said.

"The COVID-19 vaccine of BUMN by Bio Farma, which has almost 80 percent TKDN, is a step towards the independence of the health sector. With such a large TKDN, we hope to reduce dependence on imported vaccines. In the end, it will have a positive impact on saving state foreign exchange," said Honesti.

In the long term, the vaccine export market is also the destination of Bio Farma, where the SOE has registered Emergency Use Listing (EUL) with the World Health Organization (WHO).

"This vaccine can later be used in other countries through the Covax Facility (multilateral) support mechanism. Through the Covid-19 vaccine, Bio Farma hopes to contribute to supporting world health, not only in Indonesia," said Honesti.