A volunteer receives an injection of a COVID-19 candidate vaccine during a phase III trial in Bandung, West Java, on August 14.(Photo: thejakartapost) Jakarta (VNA) – Indonesian Coordinating Economic MinisterAirlangga Hartanto said on September 7 that the government had earmarked 3.8trillion IDR (256.8 million USD) for the down payment for purchasing COVID-19vaccines.
At an online press conference, he said the government plans to spend 37trillion IDR (2.51 billion USD) next year for a multi-year vaccine developmentprogramme.
The government is eyeing several potential vaccines that are currently underdevelopment. The first is the Merah Putih vaccine,which is being developed by the Research and Technology Ministry and theEijkman Institute for Molecular Biology. The second is the vaccine being developedby state pharmaceutical holding company PT Bio Farma in cooperation withSinovac Biotech of China. The third vaccine is the one being developed byUnited Arab Emirates' Group 42 (G42) Healthcare.
According to Airlangga, Indonesia plans toprocure 290 million doses of the Sinovac vaccine next year and 30 million dosesof the G42 vaccine this year. He explained that the Health Ministry was set toprepare the vaccination process, which is expected to start early next year.
Besides several countries such as Brazil and Bangladesh, PT Bio Farma andSinovac along with Padjadjaran University (Unpad) in Bandung, West Java arelaunching phase III clinical trials for a COVID-19 vaccine - the last stage ofclinical testing in humans during which the vaccine is given to thousands ofpeople to confirm and expand results on safety and efficacy from phase I and IItrials./.
VNA
