British pharmaceutical company, AstraZeneca, has agreed to provide 100 million vaccines for Indonesia. This was conveyed by Minister of Foreign Affairs, Retno Marsudi, during her visit to the UK with Minister of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) Erick Thohir.
Retno said that the new vaccine will be available in 2021. The delivery will be carried out gradually and is expected to be delivered starting in the first semester of next year.
“Indonesia has submitted a request for 100 million vaccines for 2021. AstraZeneca welcomes the request,” said Retno.
“The meeting with AstraZeneca’s leadership has gone well. Indonesia has submitted a request for 100 million vaccines for 2021. AstraZeneca welcomes the request. The first shipment is expected to be made in the first half of 2021 and will be carried out gradually,” said Retno, in a virtual conference, Wednesday (14/10/2020).
Retno explained that the AstraZeneca vaccine is one of the vaccine candidates listed by the World Health Organization (WHO) as having entered the third clinical trial phase. Apart from vaccines, AstraZeneca is also said to be ready to build long-term cooperation, including collaboration with Indonesia.
“AstraZeneca is also very interested in building long-term strategic cooperation and collaboration with Indonesia,” she said.
At the meeting, the two ministers also met with the CEO of CEPI (Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations) to discuss opportunities for the strategic cooperation that the two could undertake. Retno said Bio Farma will hold due diligence with CEPI which later will expand the cooperation in vaccine development.
“Bio Farma plans to collaborate with CEPI in development of vaccine manufacturing,” she explained.
