TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Presidential Chief of Staff Moeldoko said the government is open to collaborating in the procurement of the COVID-19 vaccine with the US pharmaceutical firm Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech.

“We do not rule out the possibility [to work together], but there are also technical problems regarding the vaccine,” said Moeldoko in his office, Jakarta, Thursday, November 12, 2020.

Reports suggested that Pfizer and BioNTech claimed its vaccine candidate is more than 90% effective. However, it still required studies by independent experts and approved by the World Health Organization (WHO).

In Indonesia, the effectiveness of vaccine candidates imported from Sinovac and Sinopharm has not been known to date. The clinical trials were scheduled to complete in April 2021.

“Our first orientation is Sinovac and Sinopharm. As for Pfizer and BioNTech, it will be difficult for our region in consideration of the cold chain distribution. That is the technical issue,” he explained.

Additionally, Moeldoko confirmed that the Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology is developing a domestic COVID-19 vaccine dubbed Merah Putih. “Perhaps there will be other vaccine factories in Indonesia. They will be surely taken into consideration, such as the effectiveness, the cost, technical issues, supplies, and others,” he said.

Read: Airlangga Says Govt Yet Consider Import Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine

ANTARA