TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - President Director of state-pharmaceutical firm Bio Farma, Honesti Basyir, in Tuesday's House hearing said that the Indonesian government is still negotiating with Pfizer BioNTech in terms of legal clauses of the Covid-19 vaccine deal.

“There are several clauses they requested such as being released from lawsuit claims in the event of an issue after the vaccination program,” said Honesti during the hearing with House of Representatives (DPR) Commission IX on Tuesday, January 12.

Regarding the aforementioned clause - which is still in deep discussions - Bio Farma maintains that the government intends to establish a partnership in vaccine procurement not by “signing a blank check.”

“It will be about how we negotiate this clause with Pfizer BioNTech,” said Bio Farma chairperson.

So far, the Indonesian government has signed deals with vaccine producers around the globe such as Novavax based in the United States and Canada, AstraZeneca from England and Sweden. Indonesia has secured 50 million doses from each firm.

Up to this day, there are 3 million doses of Sinovac vaccines that have arrived in Indonesia which will be given to people in the first phase of vaccination. The number is included in the 140 million vaccine doses the government secured from China’s Sinovac Biotech.

The government is also waiting for certitude for the Covax/Gavi vaccine which is distributed by the World Health Organization (WHO) made by an international organization that funds vaccines for low-to-middle income countries.

Read: Indonesian Sinovac Vaccine Has 65.3 Percent Efficacy: BPOM

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