Jakarta – Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi and BUMN Minister Erick Thohir have returned from their visits to China and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Erick and Retno’s visit to China to meet three biopharmaceutical companies producing the Covid-19 vaccine, Thursday (20/8/2020),
The three companies are SinovacBiotech Ltd., Sinopharm, and CanSino Biologics Inc.
This was confirmed by Foreign Minister Retno via her Twitter account. He and Erick arrived in China on Wednesday (19/8/2020). His first visit was spent with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
Then on Friday (21/8/2020) Minister Retno and Erick continued their visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This visit also aims to discuss agreements and monitor the development of the Covid-19 vaccine. As is known, one of the Chinese vaccine manufacturers, Sinopharm and Group 42 (G42) from the UAE is currently conducting a phase III clinical trial of the Covid-19 vaccine.
The vaccine candidate developed by Sinopharm is said to be the world’s first inactive or inactive vaccine that has entered phase III trials.
Indonesia, said Retno, had sent a special team to monitor the phase III clinical trial of the Covid-19 vaccine candidate prepared by Sinopharm and G42. He emphasized this after meeting Vice President Sinopharm in Sanya.
“Indonesia has dispatched a team of reviewers for phase 3 clinical trials in the UAE for the Sinopharm and G42 vaccine candidates,” said Foreign Minister Retno via Retno’s official Twitter account, @Menlu_RI.
As a result, RI can supply commitment of up to 340 million Corona vaccines by the end of 2021.
This was also the report that Retno-Erick brought to President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) at a closed meeting this morning.
“Together with the daily chairman of the committee for handling COVID-19 and PEN who is also the Minister of BUMN, this morning both reported to the President about the results of our visit to China and the UAE. From our point of view, the results of the visit were very good and even exceeded our original expectations,” he said. in a virtual press conference, Monday (24/8/2020).
Retno explained that her visit to the two countries focused on meeting the needs of the COVID-19 vaccine in the short term. As a result, for 2020 there are commitments of 20-30 million vaccines, while for 2021 the commitment is around 290-340 million vaccines.
“In 2021 for the first quarter, the vaccines that we can secure are between 80-130 million. Meanwhile, in the second-IV quarter we have secured the number of 210 million. Thus, if we talk about the number 2021, the number we can secure is 290- 340 million vaccines, ” He concluded.
