Indonesia’s Bio Farma to Get 50M Doses of Covid-19 Bulk Vaccine Starting November

BANDUNG, KOMPAS.com – Indonesian vaccine manufacturer PT Bio Farma will receive 50 million doses of the Covid-19 bulk vaccine from China-based biopharmaceutical company Sinovac Biotech Ltd.

This was agreed after both companies signed the Preliminary Agreement of Purchase and Supply of Bulk Production of Covid-19 Vaccine in Hainan, China on August 20.

The signing was witnessed by Indonesia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Retno Marsudi and State-Owned Enterprises Minister Erick Thohir, who is also the chief executive of the Covid-19 Handling and National Economic Recovery Committee.

Also read: Indonesia, China Hold Meeting on Covid-19 in Hainan

“The bulk vaccine will be received by Bio Farma from November 2020 to March 2021,” said Erick in a statement received by Kompas.com on August 21.

Each month PT Bio Farma will receive 10 million doses of the bulk vaccine from November to March.

Based on the agreement, Erick said, Bio Farma will not only process and distribute the vaccines but also it will receive the transfer of technology from its counterpart.

“Through this visit we want to ensure that our healthcare industry will get a win-win solution under the cooperation between Bio Farma and Sinovac, emphasizing the transfer of knowledge and transfer of technology,” Erick said.

Meanwhile, Minister Retno said that the ceremony saw the signing of two agreements, which allow Indonesia to get the Covid-19 bulk vaccine totaling 50 million doses until March 2021, and Bio Farma will get priority for the bulk supply until the end of 2021.

Also read: Indonesia’s Bio Farma to Produce Up to 250 Million Doses of Covid-19 Vaccines

“This is quite a long collaboration between Bio Farma and Sinovac,” said Retno.

President Director of Bio Farma Honesti Basyir, who signed the agreements, extended his appreciation for all parties for the support in realizing the Covid-19 vaccine for Indonesia.

“Let us get this big job done by immediately producing vaccines and distributing them to the people of Indonesia,” said Honesti.

Honesti explained that Bio Farma will receive the bulk vaccine in the form of Ready to Fill (RTF) product starting from November. But, he said, the vaccines will not be produced immediately as Bio Farma needs to carry out a series of tests and register the vaccines with the Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM) until the vaccines are finally ready for production.

Once these processes are completed, Bio Farma will continue to fill and pack the vaccines so that they meet the government’s local content requirement (TKDN) rules and apply the transfer of technology regarding the bulk vaccine.

He said that Bio Farma has prepared the Covid-19 vaccine production facilities with a capacity of 100 million doses this month and there will be an additional production capacity of 150 million doses by the end of December.

(Writer: Reni Susanti | Editor: Farid Assifa)

Source: https://regional.kompas.com/read/2020/08/21/21435421/bio-farma-bakal-terima-tambahan-50-juta-dosis-vaksin-curah-covid-19?page=1.