VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said that so far there have been no reports of serious side effects from the phase III clinical trial of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Sinovac and PT Bio Farma Persero.

"The reports received so far are running smoothly and no reports of serious effects have been obtained. So the point is that it is running smoothly and so far the results are good," Retno said after a virtual limited meeting led by President Joko Widodo, at the State Palace, Jakarta, on Monday.

Retno said that the Sinovac Biotech team, a pharmaceutical company from China, had directly reviewed the implementation of the phase III vaccine clinical trial in Bandung.

"On 20-24 September the Sinovac expert team visited Bandung, to review the Bio Farma vaccine production site and at the same time observe the implementation of phase III clinical trials that are being carried out in Bandung and its surroundings," she said.

Retno said Bio Farma has prepared two buildings for the production of the Sinovac vaccine and the production of other vaccine candidates.

"The Sinovac delegations visited buildings 21 and 43. Building 21 will be used for Sinovac vaccine production, while 43 for site production of candidate vaccines through multilateral mechanisms, and other vaccine candidates," she said.

The state-owned company also increased its vaccine production capacity from 100 million doses to 250 million doses.

Retno said that the Indonesian Food and Drug Supervisory Agency (BPOM) will also visit the Sinovac facility in Beijing, China, to inspect the vaccine development site.

"This is part of being careful in preparing vaccines for use in Indonesia," he said.

The third clinical trial of the Sinovac vaccine has started since August 2020 involving 1,620 volunteers.

If the clinical trial of this vaccine is successful, and the results are declared safe by the Food and Drug Administration (BPOM), the vaccine can be mass-produced and distributed. (Antaranews)