JAKARTA (TheInsiderStories) - CEO of PT Biofarma, Honesty Basyir, said that Indonesia has secured 52 million doses of raw material vaccines from Chinese drug-maker, Sinovac, after new arrival of another 16 million doses arrived today. Currently, the state firm has produced around 20 million doses of vaccines per month from the raw material.
After April, he asserted, the capacity production will increase with the introduction of a new production line to 25 million doses per month. According to Basyir, Indonesian government need funds around Rp68 trillion (US$4.72 billion) to produces vaccines in 2021.
Earlier, minister of health, Budi Gunadi Sadikin, has said that the country needs around 426 million doses of vaccines to to fulfill ‘herd immunity” for around 181 million Indonesian. To reached the targets, the government has ensured to meet the number of vaccines, he adds.
The government has signed a contract for 144 million doses of vaccine from Sinovac with an additional option to 100 million doses of vaccines. Beside, Indonesia wants to secure the vaccines from United States (US)’ drug-maker Pfizer and British’ AstraZeneca.
Indonesia has signed a contract with AstraZeneca to obtain 100 million doses of vaccine and another 100 million other doses which will also be imported from BioNTech-Pfizer. In addition, said Basyir, the subsidiary, PT Kimia Farma Tbk (IDX: KAEF), is also waiting for the results of cooperation with a company from Abu Dhabi, G42, to procure vaccines in Indonesia.
“Obtaining vaccines from these four sources aims to ensure the resilience or security of vaccines coming to Indonesia in the quantities needed. The very large number of COVID-19 vaccines is expected to come to Indonesia soon,” he told the media recently.
In total, said Sadikin, Indonesia will receive 660 million doses of vaccines including from CEVI and GAVI, a public – private global health partnership under World Health Organization. Earlier, President Joko Widodo has instructed all levels in the cabinet, ministries, agencies and local governments to prioritize the vaccination program in 2021.
He also ordered the minister of finance to prioritize and reallocates other budget related to the availability and vaccination for free. Until this week, 6 million Indonesian have received the vaccine shot and nearly 3 million of them have been given the second dose of the vaccine.
US$1: Rp14,100
Written by Editorial Staff, Email: theinsiderstories@gmail.com
