VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Head of the Merah Putih Vaccine Team, Bambang Brodjonegoro, delivered reports about the development of the Red and White Vaccine to President Joko Widodo.

President Joko Widodo previously mandated the Merah Putih Vaccine Team to accelerate the development of the vaccine on Wednesday.

Bambang, who is also the minister of research and technology, said that the vaccine's progress has reached 50 percent. 

"We told the president that the Eijkman institute has started the development of the Merah Putih vaccine with a recombinant protein platform, the process has reached 50 percent," he said on Wednesday.

Bambang said the vaccine will be tested on animals by the end of this year. In early 2021, the vaccine will be submitted to Bio Farma to enter the clinical test stage.

He estimates that in the fourth quarter of 2021, Indonesia will produce large amounts of Merah Putih vaccine.

"By the end of this year we will start animal tests, so around January, Eijkman can hand over the vaccine seeds to PT Bio Farma for clinical trials. After completing the clinical trial, BPOM [Food and Drug Administration] will verify that this vaccine is safe to use and suitable for maintaining endurance. against COVID-19, then mass production by PT Bio Farma," he said.

"In estimation, in the fourth quarter of 2021 we can produce in large quantities and later complement the vaccine with Chinese Sinovac, and G42 from the UAE," he added.

Bambang said that his party had invited several pharmaceutical companies to cooperate with the government.

To support production, other than Bio Farma which will produce 250 million doses per year, we also invited several private pharmaceutical companies to take part in the COVID-19 vaccine production. So far there are 3 potential companies. They have to get permits from BPOM and must prepare a line of production," he said.

"We hope that Indonesia can be independent in the provision and development of vaccines. We must consider from the initial research stage is that there is a possibility that every individual might need more than one shot," he added.

"If the population is around 270 million, the minimum vaccine must be 540 million, and automatically a large production capacity is required," Bambang said.