Indonesian Coordinating Economic Minister Airlangga Hartanto said on 7 September that the government had earmarked 3.8 trillion IDR (256.8 million USD) for the down payment for purchasing COVID-19 vaccines.

A volunteer receives an injection of a COVID-19 candidate vaccine during a phase III trial in Bandung, West Java, on 14 August (Photo: thejakartapost)

At an online press conference, he said the government plans to spend 37 trillion IDR (2.51 billion USD) next year for a multi-year vaccine development programme.

The government is eyeing several potential vaccines that are currently under development. The first is the Merah Putih vaccine, which is being developed by the Research and Technology Ministry and the Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology. The second is the vaccine being developed by state pharmaceutical holding company PT Bio Farma in cooperation with Sinovac Biotech of China. The third vaccine is the one being developed by United Arab Emirates' Group 42 (G42) Healthcare.

According to Airlangga, Indonesia plans to procure 290 million doses of the Sinovac vaccine next year and 30 million doses of the G42 vaccine this year. He explained that the Health Ministry was set to prepare the vaccination process, which is expected to start early next year.

Besides several countries such as Brazil and Bangladesh, PT Bio Farma and Sinovac along with Padjadjaran University (Unpad) in Bandung, West Java are launching phase III clinical trials for a COVID-19 vaccine - the last stage of clinical testing in humans during which the vaccine is given to thousands of people to confirm and expand results on safety and efficacy from phase I and II trials.

Source: VNA