Using Dendritic Cells, Can The Nusantara Vaccine Be Injected In Bulk?

Illustration (Pixabay)

JAKARTA - The Nusantara Vaccine which was initiated by former Health Minister (Menkes) Terawan Agus Putranto raises many questions.

One of them, it is possible that the COVID-19 vaccine is injected en masse considering that the cells used are dendritic cells taken from a person's body.

Responding to this, Head of the Institute for Molecular Biology (LBM) Eijkman Amin Subandrio said the vaccine with dendridytic cells is actually an individual vaccine.

Thus, it can only be given to those whose dendritic cells have been extracted and extracted in such a way.

"This dendritic vaccine is individual and can only be given to the person who is the source," Amin said in an online discussion broadcast on YouTube, Saturday, April 17.

So, this vaccine can be done on many people, "but can only be given to the same person," he said. "So, many people can do it but the process must be individualized," added Amin.

He also mentioned the cost of this dendritic-based vaccine. Although we do not know how much it costs for the Nusantara Vaccine, in view of the dendritic cell-based cancer treatment, it is quite expensive.

As for these dendritic cells, called Amin are also used for the treatment of those affected by cancer.

"I don't have the cost (for the Nusantara Vaccine, red). It's just that for cancer, the costs are quite high because this is an individual vaccine," he said.

The Nusantara Vaccine is getting more polemic after a number of political figures and officials joined the volunteer phase II clinical trial at the Gatot Soebroto Central Army Hospital, Jakarta, Wednesday, April 15 In this stage, the vaccine volunteers will take a blood sample and process it for 7 days to then be injected back into the body.

Even though this vaccine has not received the approval of the Food and Drug Supervisory Agency (BPOM) to continue. The reason is that there are several conditions that have not been fulfilled in vaccine development, namely Good Clinical Practical, Proof of Concept, Good Laboratory Practice and Good Manufacturing Practice.

Not only that, the next problem is that the antigen of the Nusantara vaccine does not come from an Indonesian virus but from the United States, where the genoric sequence and strain of the virus are not known.