TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo on Tuesday, August 11, announced that the government is currently preparing a locally-produced COVID-19 vaccine. It comes parallel to the vaccine currently developed by state-pharmaceutical firm Bio Farma with China’s Sinovac Biotech.

President Jokowi said the local vaccine has been given the name “Vaksin Merah Putih” or the red and white vaccine, referring to Indonesia’s national flag.

“For the past three months, we have developed our own vaccine from the COVID-19 that has spread in Indonesia,” said Jokowi while visiting Bio Farma’s third clinical trial at Padjadjaran University, West Java.

Moreover, he said that this vaccine is entirely produced domestically by Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology, the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT), the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), The Indonesian Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM), the Research and Technology Ministry, along with a number of Indonesian universities.

“We do wish the Merah Putih vaccine will soon be completed. We forecast its completion in mid-2021,” said Jokowi.

The announcement confirms that the Indonesian government is developing numerous vaccine candidates for COVID-19 with countries such as China, South Korea, and the United Arab Emirates.

Read: Jokowi Hopes COVID-19 Vaccine Clinical Trials Complete in 6 Months

EGI ADYATAMA