Jakarta, TheIndonesiaPost – The presence of the covid-19 vaccine produced by Sinovac, China brought a breath of fresh air in the homeland, which currently has 100 thousand coronary sufferers.
Shares of several pharmaceutical companies were immediately shot. But on the other hand, there is concern that this vaccine will only become a new business field without humanitarian considerations. The high corona sufferers in the world also encourage the emergence of these concerns.
This concern could arise in the case of rapid tests. Rapid test which should be a way to find out whether a person is corona positive or not, has recently been suspected of only looking for profit.
The entry of vaccine candidates from Sinovac Biotech in Indonesia indeed brings great hope. Moreover, this vaccine candidate has passed clinical trials phase I and II. This means that the vaccine is ready to be trialled by volunteers in Indonesia to see if there are any side effects.
Quoted from Sindonews.com, Covid-19 Vaccine Clinical Trial Coordinator and Professor of Padjadjaran University (Unpad) Kusnandi Rusmil said that at least 1,620 volunteers were needed for clinical trials of covid-19 vaccine.
He said there were criteria that had to be met in order to volunteer for the covid-19 vaccine clinical trial.
One of them is related to age, between the ages of 18 and 59 years. “The criteria for this study must be healthy. So the person must be examined carefully. Check his blood, check his heart, check that his lungs are healthy, then he can join this research. Like that,” he said.
The Chief Expert Staff of the Presidential Staff Office (KSP) Dany Amrul Ichdan said that the cooperation in developing covid vaccine candidates with Sinovach was carried out by business to business (B to B) instead of government to government (G to G). Later PT Biofarma will cooperate with Sinovach to mass produce covid-19 vaccine if it has passed Trial Clinical III.
In the initial stages of mass production the government must prepare around Rp 25 trillion-Rp 30 trillion. Estimated figures are calculated by the estimated price of vaccines reaching 5-10 US dollars, multiplied by 175 million vaccines.
The Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) said that the production capacity of the Covid-19 corona virus vaccine, the state-owned Bio Farma company with Sinovac Biotech Ltd from China, will not immediately be able to meet the vaccine needs in Indonesia.
Head of LIPI’s Applied Genetic Engineering and Protein Design Laboratory, Wien Kusharyoto quoted from CNNIndonesia.com said Bio Farma would not be able to directly produce the 250 million Covid-19 vaccines the company had promised. Wien calculated that Bio Farma’s production capacity was 50 thousand vaccines per week.
A limited number of vaccines are also expected to be used to make the corona vaccine a business field.
Therefore, Wien suggested that the government could allocate the limited vaccine to medical personnel who were directly exposed to Covid-19 patients.
Priority vaccine for medical personnel is one of the things that must be done. In addition, the government must be able to prioritize vaccines in the ‘red’ areas that have the highest Covid-19 case numbers.
In addition, Bio Farma must immediately think of vaccine logistics in the form of vaccine containers or bottles, patches, to alcohol wipes so that they do not become a problem when the vaccine is ready.
In terms of providing logistics vaccines, Wien suggested that Indonesia could emulate the United States which specifically formed a task force to take care of the logistics of Covid-19. (mhn/bbs)
It’s hard to say