Erick Thohir: Bio Farma Has Well Prepared DownstreamFacilities for Covid-19 Vaccines

State Minister for SEOs Erick Thohir (front) accompanied by President Director of Bio Farma, Honesti Basyir (second right) and Director of Digital Health Care Bio Farma, Soleh Ayubi (third right), unified the Vaccine Distribution Management System (SMDV) at Bio Farma's Command Center, to unify vaccine distribution.

(Bandung 7/1) SEO Minister Erick Thohir visited Bio Farma to ensure that Bio Farma had carried out the government's duty as a provider of Covid-19 vaccines. The visit, which was held on January 7, 2021, began with an examination of the readiness of the Command Center facilities, as part of the Vaccine Distribution Management System (SMDV) from the Bio Farma Warehouse, to the current vaccine delivery point to the provincial level.

"The existence of this command center proves that Bio Farma, the Ministry of SOEs, is serious in carrying out its duties, in terms of sending Covid-19 vaccines to 34 provinces (for health workers) and sending them properly. I respectfully appeal to regional leaders to maintain the temperature between 2-8 degrees Celsius, lest there be failures in storage because outside this temperature, the quality will be disturbed," said Erick, on the sidelines of an interview with the media.

Erick Thohir also emphasized that the COVID-19 vaccines to be used by the Indonesian government have been registered on the World Health Organization (WHO) list and are currently undergoing clinical trials.

"From the start, I suggested that the vaccines (COVID-19) used by the government are vaccines that have been listed on the WHO list and have been (or are "in the middle of) going through clinical trials," said Erick.

During this visit, Erick Thohir visited the 43 Bio Farma building as a place to store the Covid-19 vaccine (cold storage), which had just arrived from Sinovac on December 31, 2020. In addition to visiting the vaccine storage area, Erick Thohir also confirmed the readiness of downstream production facilities at Bio Farma for the Covid-19 vaccine, where Bio Farma has prepared a capacity of 250 million doses, of which 100 million production facilities have received a Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) certificate.) from the National Food and Drug Agency (POM Agency).

"Alhamdulillah, Bio Farma has ensured that the production facilities are good, and ensured that the vaccine infrastructure is good for distribution, production is in accordance with applicable standards. Hopefully, this vaccination can run well, and we from the Ministry of SOEs and Bio Farma are trying to carry out our duties. As well as possible so that people can be properly vaccinated," said Erick.

Holding BUMN Pharmaceuticals PT Bio Farma (Bio Farma) continues to strive to secure more and diverse supplies of COVID-19 vaccines by signing an initial purchase with an American and Canadian developer, Novavax, and a vaccine developer from Britain and Germany, AstraZeneca, as a form of commitment and work to protect the public from risks and get out of the COVID-19 pandemic.

President Director of Bio Farma Honesti Basyir explained to Erick Thohir that Bio Farma had ensured the provision of 225.5 million doses of vaccine, and an additional 104 million doses are still in process with the provider, so the current number will be in line with the direction of the President of the Republic of Indonesia Joko Widodo.

"Until now, at least Indonesia has secured as many as 225.5 million doses, and 104 million doses are still in process. So that the total that Indonesia has secured is 329.5 million doses of the total requirement of 426 million doses, for the Indonesian people, which we get from various sources, "said Honesti.

On this occasion, Honesti also explained that for the vaccine distribution system, Bio Farma had utilized Internet of Things (IoT) technology, where the vaccine delivery process will be monitored in real-time so that Bio Farma can take certain actions if an unusual event occurs in the vaccine.(ed/ss)