Indonesia to Receive 50 Million Doses of Pfizer Vaccine

Implementation of vaccination for students carried out by the State Intelligence Agency (BIN), Wednesday (14/07). (Photo by: BPMI/Lukas)

The Indonesian Government has announced it will receive 50 million doses of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine following Ministry of Health’s partnership with Pfizer Indonesia and BioNTech SE.

Minister of Health Budi Gunadi Sadikin welcomed the partnership in the procurement of Pfizer vaccines in Indonesia aimed to speed up vaccination drive in the country.

“I would like to express my gratitude for the partnership that will help Indonesia to meet the need for COVID-19 vaccines. With the additional 50 million doses of Pfizer vaccine, we hope we can speed up the vaccination drive in Indonesia,” the Minister said in a statement (14/7).

Pfizer Indonesia and BioNTech SE will provide the doses once the Indonesian Food and Drug Administration (BPOM) issues the vaccine’s emergency use authorization (EUA).

“The vaccine can only be used for the vaccination drive after obtaining the EUA from the BPOM,” Budi said.

Pfizer and BioNTech aim to produce 3 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccine globally by the end of 2021.

For the record, they started their phase three clinical trial of this mRNA-based vaccine in late July last year. Meanwhile, the registration for this vaccine was completed in January this year with over 46 thousand participants. The participants were continuously monitored for long-term protection and safety for two years after the injection of the second dose.

Country Manager of Pfizer Indonesia Stephen Leung expressed appreciation for the partnership. “The agreement is an important step in providing the vaccine in order to protect the health of Indonesian people, to recover the economy, and to accelerate the return process of the people to normal life,” he said.

In the meantime, Chief Business and Chief Commercial Officer of BioNTech Sean Marett expressed gratitude to the Indonesian Government for its support and trust in the ability to develop a vaccine to overcome the threat posed by this global pandemic.

“Our goal is to immediately provide an acceptable and effective supply of COVID-19 vaccine to as many people as possible across the globe,” Marett said. (PR of Ministry of Health/UN) (FI/MUR)