Govt Eyes to Distribute Merah Putih COVID-19 Vaccine in Q4 2021
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27 November 2020 21:37 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Research and Technology Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro expected the domestic COVID-19 vaccine dubbed the Merah Putih vaccine could be distributed to the public in the fourth quarter of 2021.
“Hopefully in the fourth quarter of 2021, the Merah Putih vaccine can be distributed to the public,” said Bambang in the ministry’s working meeting in Jakarta today, Nov. 27.
The minister explained that several steps must be taken before distributing the antibody. The first thing to do, he added, was handing over the vaccine prototype to the producer—state-owned pharmaceutical giant Bio Farma—which was targeted in the first quarter of 2021.
Afterwards, the vaccine will be at the stage of scaling up starting from phase 1, phase 2, and phase 3 clinical trials. The vaccine then must be reviewed and evaluated by the Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM) for a distribution permit.
“We are surely trying our best because we want to contain this pandemic as soon as possible,” said Bambang.
Presently, the most progressive development of the domestic COVID-19 vaccine is the one being developed by Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology using a recombinant subunit proteins platform. The progress has reportedly achieved more than 50 percent on the laboratory scale.
Read: Jokowi Says Govt Will Provide Free and Paid COVID-19 Vaccine
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