President Jokowi Lauds PT Bio Farma’s Young Human Resources

President Jokowi inspects facility of state-owned pharmaceutical holding company PT Bio Farma in Bandung, Thursday (10/13). (Photo by: BPMI of Presidential Secretariat/Laily Rachev)

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo Thursday (10/13) expressed appreciation to state-owned pharmaceutical holding company PT Bio Farma as it has successfully produced first homegrown COVID-19 vaccine named IndoVac.

“This is the hard work of our young human resources in working on a new vaccine from upstream to downstream for 1.5 years. They worked in silence, never made a sound. But voila, IndoVac,” the President said at PT Bio Farma, Bandung, West Java province.

In addition to inspecting PT Bio Farma, the President is slated to attend the launch and initial injection of IndoVac vaccine. The President also visited the production room and packaging room before attending the vaccine manufacturing process.

“What’s the raw material for the vaccine?” the President said.

“The material undergoes engineering process. We use part of the virus,” Bio Farma’s Senior Executive Vice President of Production Juliman said.

On that occasion, the President also asked about the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for the vaccine.

“The vaccine is still a sample. However, quality control of the vaccine has been checked using the equipment on the top floor,” he said.

The President also inspected the packaging room and saw IndoVac vaccine that has been packaged in a bottle.

“How many doses of the vaccine are there in one bottle?” the President asked.

“One bottle or one vial contains 5 ml vaccine, so it can be used for 10 doses of vaccine because each dose is 0.5 ml,” Head of the Production Division Bambang Heriyanto said. (BPMI SETPRES/UN) (RIF/MUR)