TEMPO.CO, 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 on Monday.

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.

“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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ANTARA