Surabaya, The Indonesia Post – Governor of East Java Khofifah Indar Parawansa confirmed that as many as 1,225,000 doses of the Inavac COVID-19 vaccine produced by Airlangga University (Unair) together with PT Biotis Pharmaceutical are ready to be injected and used by the Indonesian people.
According to Khofifah, the Inavac vaccine is currently ready to be sent to the Ministry of Health to be injected immediately to all Indonesian citizens, including those in East Java.
“Allhamdulillah, the progress of the Inavac vaccine in early 2023 has prepared 1.2 million doses of vaccine. This vaccine will be an effort to accelerate the immunity of the Indonesian people, even though cases of COVID-19 continue to experience a significant decline,” said Khofifah in Surabaya, Friday.
The former Minister of Social Affairs said that in the near future, the East Java Provincial Government will send a letter to the Minister of Health so that he can get his share of the 1.2 million doses.
“East Java hopes to receive sufficient rations to continue vaccinating the public to achieve group immunity, before the Ministry of Health distributes the Inavac vaccine to all provinces in Indonesia,” she said.
Governor Khofifah who is also Chairperson of the Unair Alumni Association (IKA) explained that of the 1.2 million doses ready for use, this was the first production in November 2022. Inavac’s production target for 2023 is 15-20 million doses.
Apart from accelerating domestic vaccination, some of the doses will be exported to countries that need it.
Based on the results of clinical trials, Inavac can be used as a primary COVID-19 vaccine or as a first and second dose of vaccine within a 28-day usage interval.
In addition, he continued, Inavac could only be used by people aged 18 and over, after obtaining an emergency use permit from the Food and Drug Supervisory Agency (BPOM) on November 4, 2022.
The Head of the Inavac Research Team, Prof. Ni Nyoman Tri Puspaningsih, confirmed that he would continue the research which aims to not only use it for teenagers and adults, but also for children.
“Clinical trial proposals have also been sent to BPOM. Approval of the clinical trial protocol will be carried out for adolescents first. After that for vaccines for children until December this year,” she said. (mhn/bbs)
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