Developing A COVID-19 Vaccine, Kalbe Farma Collaborates With South Korea

Illustrated. (Irfan Meidianto / VOI)

JAKARTA - PT Kalbe Farma Tbk (Kalbe) signed a memorandum of understanding with Genexine, Inc, a biologic drug company from South Korea to develop a new corona virus vaccine or COVID-19.

Kalbe and Genexine agreed to conduct a clinical trial for GX-19 in Indonesia, namely the development of a DNA vaccine against COVID-19 by a consortium with Genexine, Binex, the International Vaccine Institute (IVI), GenNBio, the Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology (KAIST) , and Pohang University of Science & Technology (POSTECH).

Director of PT Kalbe Farma Tbk Sie Djohan said the clinical trial for the COVID-19 vaccine is planned to be carried out in June 2020.

"This cooperation in developing the COVID-19 vaccine is Kalbe's contribution to helping the government overcome the COVID-19 outbreak in Indonesia," he said, in a written statement received by VOI, in Jakarta, Friday, May 29.

Kalbe hopes that this research and development of the COVID-19 vaccine can quickly get results, so that the need for vaccines in Indonesia can be guaranteed.

According to Djohan, this vaccine research has been carried out on primates, and it has been proven to have produced antibodies that are able to neutralize the new corona virus or known as COVID-19, so that the next stage will be tested on humans.

"Kalbe will collaborate with related government agencies to collaborate in developing the COVID-19 vaccine. So that the research process runs smoothly and the results can be used for the health interests of the Indonesian people," he said.

For your information, PT Kalbe Farma Tbk collaborates with Genexine Inc, a South Korean biologic drug company, to form PT Kalbe Genexine Biologic (KGBio), a joint venture company in developing and making raw materials for biotechnology drugs in Indonesia.