Indonesia seeking its own COVID-19 vaccine
Indonesia is working to produce its own COVID-19 vaccine next year, amid growing anxiety that developing countries could have difficulty getting access to a future jab, Reuters reported the head of Indonesia’s national COVID-19 research team as saying on Thursday.
“The production capability and capacity of biotech companies in the world is, we know, limited, and global supply chains also have challenges,” Ali Ghufron Mukti, head of the innovation team at Indonesia’s research and technology ministry, told a streamed press conference alongside the country’s foreign minister.
“Therefore, it is necessary for Indonesia to develop its own COVID-19 vaccine. And it will be by Indonesia, from Indonesia, to Indonesia,” he said.
“We are using our theory and we are optimistic that in the year 2021 and early 2021, this will be finished in the laboratory,” he said, adding state-owned firm Bio Farma could conduct trials in the second half of next year.
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi has in recent months spoken about the need for developing countries to have access to any future vaccine, amid concern that rich countries would try to corner a limited supply.
Such concerns increased this week, when the United States announced it had bought up most of the global supply of Gilead Sciences Inc.’s drug remdesivir, shown to speed up recovery times from COVID-19.
The pandemic has sparked a race to find a vaccine, with more than 100 in development and around a dozen already being tested in humans.
With a population of more than 265 million, Indonesia estimates it would need more than 352 million shots of a two-dose vaccine.
On Thursday Indonesia recorded 1,624 new coronavirus cases, the highest daily rise so far, taking the total number of cases to 59,394.
Newsfeed
Videos
Artur Vanetsyan: I think you'll see me more often at various events in future
