Domestic Covid-19 vaccine research is progressing. The Eijkamn Institute for Molecular Biology plans to hand over the Red and White vaccine material to Biofarma for pre-clinical and clinical trials.
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AHMAD ARIF/DEONISIA ARLINTA/ADITYA DIVERANTA
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A number of Eijkman LBM laboratories are operating the Cobas 6800 System machine in the Covid-19 specimen testing laboratory at LBM Eijkman, Jakarta, Thursday (16/7/2020).
JAKARTA, KOMPAS — The Eijkman Molecular Biology Institute has developed a recombinant protein for the Covid-19 vaccine it is striving to develop. This material will be delivered to PT Bio Farma (Persero) at the end of May 2021 for preclinical and clinical trials of the Merah Putih candidate vaccine.
“We have the recombinant protein that will become the Covid-19 vaccine material. Several tests have shown a good response as the antigen stimulates the formation of antibodies,” the head of the Eijkman Molecular Biology Institute, Amin Subandrio, said in Jakarta on Wednesday (21/4/2021).
However, the productivity of the recombinant protein expression system is not yet satisfactory. “We hope its production will rise to suit the industrial scale. Now we are improving it,” he said.
At present, the vaccine material is in the process of transition from the laboratory to Bio Farma. The upscaling can only be done by Bio Farma, because it has a larger bioreactor. Cell productivity depends on the size of the bioreactor.
If it passes clinical trials, the vaccine will be produced in 2022
The vaccine material will be turned over by the Eijkman Institute to Bio Farma at the end of May. Clinical trials will start in the fourth quarter of 2021. “If it passes clinical trials, the vaccine will be produced in 2022,” he added.
A recombinant comes from the DNA recombination vaccine development method. The genetic (genome) material from a virus isolate is multiplied by the double chain polymerase machine to be cut up to get the segment containing glycoprotein spikes.
The segment makes the SARS-CoV-2 virus causing Covid-19 stick to a victim’s body and damage it. It is then inserted into the cell nucleus of a test animal until the virus genome bit is integrated in the mammal’s genetic material string for multiplication and replication, so that it becomes a recombinant protein that, when injected, can induce the formation of antibodies.
According to Amin, seven research institutes in Indonesia are developing Covid-19 vaccines, including the Eijkman Institute. “Only three have made rapid progress. Besides Eijkman, there are Unair (Airlangga University) and UI (University of Indonesia),” he said.
Based on data from the Health Ministry, the number of people having received at least the first Covid-19 vaccination reached 11,302,294 yesterday (Wednesday, 21/4/2021), while 6,341,931 people have already been vaccinated for the second time. That amounts to a daily increase of more than 160,000 people injected with the first dose and over 190,000 injected with the second dose.
Yet the distribution of vaccines was criticized by the Coalition of Residents for Health Access Justice, because it was regarded as having deviated from the intended prioritization of senior citizens. “When the coverage of elderly people was very low, vaccinations went to [celebrities] outside the vulnerable group,” said Aditia Bagus Santoso, a coalition representative from the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute Foundation, in a written statement.
Data from vaksin.kemkes.go.id indicate that the number of senior residents having received first dose comprises 2.2 million people, which is only 10.66 percent of the targeted 21.5 million. The number of elderly people having got the second shot is 1.1 million, or 5.16 percent of their target.
KOMPAS/RIZA FATHONI
Elderly people ride a school bus fleet that is used to take pick-up and pick-up from the Puskesmas Kelurahan Makasar to the vaccination location at Tamini Square shopping center, East Jakarta, Wednesday (21/4/2021) A total of 50 fleets are on standby for pick-up spread across eight urban villages.
Therefore, the elderly should be facilitated in reaching health facilities to expand Covid-19 inoculation in that age group. Coordinating Economic Minister Airlangga Hartarto portrayed the shuttle service as a way to help senior residents who are having trouble getting to health facilities. Numerous hospitals need to offer this service to cover the elderly group.
The vaccines are available, but adequate services are needed.
Airlangga, concurrently the chairman of the Committee on Covid-19 Control and National Economic Recovery, viewed the elderly shuttle service as a way to accelerate vaccination. “The [vaccination] priority is senior residents. The vaccines are available, but adequate services are needed,” Airlangga told the press when launching the Home Care & Home Delivery Service at Husada Hospital in Jakarta.
AstraZeneca
Meanwhile, 3.8 million AstraZeneca vaccine doses will again arrive in Indonesia at the end of April. This batch is a follow-up to the delivery through multilateral cooperation with the Covid-19 Vaccines Advance
Market Commitment or Covax AMC that was delayed due to an embargo by producing countries.
“A total of 3.85 million doses will be delivered at the end of this month [April],” said Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin.
Tjandra Yoga Aditama, UI Medical school professor and former director of infectious diseases at the World Health Organization (WHO) in Southeast Asia, citing the surging case number in countries such as India, said caution should be maintained against any slackness in health protocols.
In India, adherence to health protocols has slackened. Markets are again crowded, movie houses open and getting packed, public transportation is crammed. That comes after India had decreased its cases tenfold through the tightening of health rules and contact-tracing before the vaccination drive.
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