Bio Farma to clinically test Red and White vaccine
Published on: Wednesday, October 21, 2020
By: Antara News
A consortium has been set up to produce the Red and White vaccine.
JAKARTA: State-owned pharmaceutical firm PT Bio Farma will conduct pre-clinical and clinical trials of the Red and White Covid-19 vaccine once its prototype is obtained from the Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology in 2021.“We will have obtained the vaccine prototype by January or February, 2021. The prototype will be handed to Bio Farma for further process. (Next) There will be the upscaling (of the vaccine) for pre-clinical trials and phase 1, 2, and 3 clinical trials,” PT Bio Farma corporate secretary Bambang Heriyanto said here.
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PT Bio Farma plans to conduct vaccine upscaling, or formulation, as part of preparations for pre-clinical trials on animals and clinical trials on humans.
Named after the Indonesian flag, the Red and White vaccine is being developed by Eijkman, an Indonesian institution. The vaccine is based on an isolate of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which is circulating in Indonesia. SARS-CoV-2 causes the novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19).
The progress of the vaccine developed by Eijkman has reached 55 percent on the laboratory scale.
Bio Farma and Eijkman Institute have set up a consortium to produce the Red and White vaccine as part of efforts to curb the spread of Covid-19 in the country.
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“We are cooperating in conducting research. Of course, this research was started with a research scale done by the Eijkman Institute,” Heriyanto said.
The Indonesian government is focusing on the research and development of the Red and White vaccine to make the country self-reliant in the production of vaccines against Covid-19.
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Bio Farma says they are capable of producing between 16 million and 17 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine developed by a Chinese pharmaceutical company, Sinovac Biotech Ltd.
“We can produce some 16 million to 17 million doses per month, but this will also depend on the availability or supply time from Sinovac,” said Bambang.
Bio Farma has an annual vaccine production capacity of 250 million doses, he remarked.
Currently, for the interim, Sinovac has made a commitment to supply 260 million doses of the vaccine. Bio Farma will commence stage-wise production of the vaccine after receiving permission from the Food and Drug Supervisory Agency (BPOM).
However, Bio Farma could make preparations to produce vaccines in November and December 2020 since several further tests were still required prior to production in order to ensure the vaccine’s quality, safety, and efficacy, he expounded.
“We might begin preparations early and at the start of November and December, we plan to have the vaccine available here, as trials will be conducted before production,” he stated.
The production will be completed gradually, he noted.
Indonesia requires 340 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine within a year, or some 60 percent of its total population.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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