BPOM Continues to Ensure Safety and Efficacy of COVID-19 Vaccines

By Office of Assistant to Deputy Cabinet Secretary for State Documents & Translation     Date 13 Agustus 2021
Category: News
Read: 529 Views

Head of the Food and Drug SupervisoryAgency (BPOM) Penny K. Lukito (Documentation: Cabinet Secretariat)

In a bid to ensure the safety, quality, and efficacyof available vaccines, the Food and Drug Supervisory Agency (BPOM) will continuously supervise and assist vaccine clinical trials for the national vaccination drive.

“All vaccines that will be used in the vaccination program in Indonesia have gone through a long process and obtained the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) as distribution permit and approvalto use them,” Head of the BPOM Penny K. Lukito said in a virtual press statement on the arrival of 5 million doses of ready-to-use CoronaVac vaccine, Friday (13/8).

Penny went on to say that her agency has cooperated with the Indonesian Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (ITAGI) and other relevant experts during assessment and approval processes. In addition, the BPOM together with the National Food and Drug Testing Development Center (PPPOMN)also oversee the quality of vaccines before they are distributed.

To date, BPOM has issued emergency use permits for six vaccines, namely Sinovac, AstraZeneca, Sinopharm, Moderna, and Pfizer or Comirnaty.

For the record, the CoronaVac vaccine manufactured by Sinovac Biotech has obtained the EUA from the BPOM and Indonesia has received the ready-to-use and bulk vaccines. The bulk vaccines later processed by state-owned pharmaceutical holding company PT Bio Farma.

Moreover, the BPOM will continue to monitor the vaccination drive in Indonesia so that it runs smoothly and safely through quality control activities and monitoring of adverse event following immunization.

“We carry out surveillance activities in the distribution process until (the vaccines arrive in) healthcare facilities, as well as conduct sampling tests in terms of quality control and vaccine safety or monitoring of Adverse Event Following Immunization (KIPI) with Ministry of Health and health offices throughout Indonesia,” Penny said.

On that occasion, she urged the public to be vaccinated, comply with the health protocols, and support the Government’s strategic measures in accelerating the pandemic handling.

“Let’s continue to join hands in building optimism to support the Government’s strategic steps in speeding up the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic so that we can immediately achieve herd immunity and the pandemic will end soon,” she remarked. (FID/UN) (RIF/MMB)

Latest News