October 7, 2022

Indonesia is in talks with several African countries, including Nigeria, to export and donate its home-made COVID-19 vaccine, its developer said on Friday after becoming the first country in Southeast Asia to develop a domestically developed COVID – Vaccination approved.

Indonesian approval for the shot, which has yet to be announced in detail study data and which is mainly based on pre-Omicron coroanvirus variants, underscores advances in vaccine research and in reducing dependence on foreign technology.

“With Indovac … it’s Indonesia’s chance to donate,” Honesti Basyir, CEO of state-owned Bio Farma, told Reuters, referring to the protein-recombinant COVID vaccine approved by the drug regulator BPOM last month.

Bio Farma said it had also submitted documents to the World Health Organization for an Emergency List (EUL) approval for IndoVac, which would allow it to be donated through organizations such as the global vaccine sharing program COVAX.

Meanwhile, Indonesia can export the vaccine.

“It doesn’t rule out the possibility that we export as long as the approval of BPOM can be accepted by local regulators,” Honesti said, but added that the priority is to vaccinate Indonesians first.

However, export prospects for the vaccine are said to be limited given the global oversupply of COVID vaccines and Indovac not being designed to combat the dominant Omicron variant.

African countries struggled to secure COVID vaccines early in the pandemic as rich countries hoarded doses. But many are now well supplied with needles and are instead struggling to get them, either out of hesitation or logistical reasons.

IndoVac, co-developed with the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development at Baylor College of Medicine, is available as a primary vaccine for adults in Indonesia.

Honesti said research has started to make an Omicron-targeted version, adding the COVID vaccine development has given Indonesia confidence to reduce its reliance on foreign technology.

Bio Farma plans to produce 20 million doses of IndoVac this year, but final delivery is dependent on government vaccination schedules.

Indonesia has more than 63% of its 270 million people fully vaccinated with vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna and China’s Sinovac Biotech.

Honesti said Bio Farma stopped producing Sinovac’s vaccine last year and is not about to receive more supplies from the Chinese company as it shifts its focus to IndoVac.