Clinical Trial for Two Locally Developed Vaccines to Start in February

TheIndonesia.co - The Drug and Food Control Agency (BPOM) revealed that two locally-developed vaccines will undergo initial phase of clinical trial next month.

Head of the Agency Penny Lukito said Merah Putih vaccine has concluded its preclinical trial on animal and is currently awaiting phase one of clinical trial planned for early February. The vaccine is developed by Airlangga University and PT Biotis.

“It’s estimated that on February 5, 2022, phase one of Merah Putih vaccine’s clinical trial will be launched,” Lukito said on Tuesday, January 18, during a meeting with House of Representative’s Commission IX, as reported by Antara.

The second vaccine, developed by PT Bio Farma and Baylor College of Medicine, is also estimated to undergo phase one of clinical trial in February.

In the occasion, Lukito also reported updates related to Zifivac vaccine developed by PT Jakarta Biopharmaceutical (JBio) and mRNA vaccine from PT Etana.

JBio’s production facility is still under construction since November 2020, and the company targets to finish the facility and start production by August this year.

Meanwhile, PT Etana plans to produces its mRNA COVID-19 vaccine in March this year after all production facilities owned by the pharmaceutical company earned good manufacturing practice certificate from the Agency on December 30, 2019.