VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Head of the Food and Drug Supervisory Agency (BPOM) Penny K Lukito said the Sinovac vaccine met the requirements to receive a halal label.

"Based on Biofarma and Indonesian Ulema Council's inspections, the halal aspect has been fulfilled," said Penny in an online press conference on Thursday.

Penny said MUI had examined the halal aspect of the vaccine. Meanwhile, the Indonesian Ulema Council is discussing the COVID-19 vaccine fatwa at the MUI National Conference held on November 25-27.

She said BPOM continues to monitor the progress of the Sinovac vaccine trial, which is entering phase III clinical trials in Bandung. BPOM collects Sinovac clinical trial data which will be combined with data from other countries, such as Brazil.

For this reason, she said the BPOM had not yet drawn a conclusion so it gave an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for the COVID-19 vaccine even though it had obtained data on the aspects of safety, efficacy, and quality of the vaccine.

Further conclusions are needed to provide EUA for Sinovac. BPOM, he said, will continue to monitor the development of the Sinovac vaccine clinical trial in the next three months.

"We will continue to monitor the safety aspect for three months, the next six months. We need a vaccine that is not only quality and safe, but also effective, has good efficacy," she said.

Furthermore, she said the BPOM was collecting data on how the Sinovac vaccine could generate antibodies to the human body so that a person could be immune to COVID-19. (Antaranews)