However, it has also brought an important lesson, which has led to a new milestone in Indonesia's history: independent vaccine development.
In the years prior to the pandemic, Indonesia never developed vaccines from scratch, especially with a formula developed by domestic researchers.
The COVID-19 pandemic provided the momentum to Indonesia to begin creating its own vaccine; This is expected to lead the nation to vaccine sovereignty, according to observers.
This is important since Indonesia has a massive vaccine requirement: The archipelagic country is home to a large population of around 270 million people. Thus, the nation’s vaccine needs are large.
Indonesia needs at least 540 million vaccine doses to ensure its entire population is fully vaccinated against COVID-19. And that's not counting booster doses. As of Wednesday (March 3, 2022), 54.15 percent of Indonesia's population has received two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Currently, all vaccines being used in the country have been obtained from overseas. However, this poses some problems. It is difficult to fully rely on supplies from abroad at a time when COVID-19 vaccine producers can serve only a small fraction of the total world population.
As countries across the world need vaccines, the small number of producers can affect access, equity, and speed of vaccination in countries around the world, observers said.
As a result, there is a huge gap between the supply and global vaccine needs due to the limited number of vaccine manufacturers. Statistics have shown that access to the COVID-19 vaccine is also still limited and not evenly distributed among the world's countries, especially when it comes to low-income countries.
The distribution of COVID-19 vaccines cannot wait any longer because people's lives are at stake.
On top of that, there are lingering fears that the SARS-CoV-2 virus could mutate further and potentially create variants that could bypass the immune system after it has been reinforced by vaccination. This would be even more worrying if a variant emerges that is so strong that it renders vaccines useless.
Thus, COVID-19 vaccines must be administered immediately to people to develop immunity against the coronavirus.
Even though there is no single vaccine that can create full or permanent immunity against the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, a vaccine-reinforced immune system can boost antibodies in the body for fighting viral infections so that a person does not fall severely or critically ill, which can increase the risk of death, experts said.
Therefore, Indonesia has started to develop its own vaccines in order to reduce dependence on external stakeholders. At the very least, the vaccines produced domestically should be able to meet the vaccine need within the country.
At present, as many as seven domestic teams, which have been included in the national consortium for the development of the Merah Putih vaccine, are developing the indigenous COVID-19 vaccine.
The seven teams are Airlangga University, Gadjah Mada University, University of Indonesia, Bandung Institute of Technology, Padjadjaran University, former Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology, and former Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI). Eijkman and LIPI have been integrated into BRIN since 2021.
Acting head of the Life Sciences Research Organization of the National Research and Innovation Agency, Iman Hidayat, said that each team is developing the Red and White vaccine using different methods. The vaccine candidates range from vaccines based on an inactivated virus to vaccines based on recombinant proteins.
The fastest progress has been made by Airlangga University, which is collaborating with PT Biotis Pharmaceuticals Indonesia on vaccine development.
Currently, the Merah Putih (Red and White) vaccine whose seeds have been developed by Universitas Airlangga is undergoing Phase 1 clinical trials. Ninety volunteers who are at least 18 years old are participating in the trials.
Meanwhile, other teams are still at the antigen yield optimization stage, and some are conducting preclinical tests, officials said.
The country needs COVID-19 vaccines for early vaccinations and for administering booster shots. A booster vaccine is needed because the immunity formed after the COVID-19 vaccination does not last forever, and it gradually declines in effectiveness against the virus. In order to maintain immunity, it is necessary to re-vaccinate people, experts explained.
Big challenge
The development of the Red and White vaccine in Indonesia is a big challenge for researchers in the country because so far none has the experience of creating a vaccine from scratch, according to head of the National Research and Innovation Agency, Tri Handoko.
The development of an indigenous vaccine would start with domestic researchers making vaccine seed formulas and end with the production of vaccines, he said.
The COVID-19 pandemic has reminded everyone of the importance of mastering science and technology, as well as increasing capabilities and expediting collaboration to create vaccines independently, he added.
The urgent need for vaccines in large quantities for the people in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic has pushed Indonesia to pursue scientific advances so that the government knows the right thing to do and allocates resources for vaccine development, he said.
Although vaccine development needs to be quick during the COVID-19 pandemic due to the urgent need for immunization, researchers and related parties are following all processes in accordance with standard procedures and scientific standards so that they can obtain an emergency-use authorization from the National Agency of Drug and Food Control, he added.
This is being done to ensure that vaccine products are safe and effective and of good quality, Handoko said.
Indonesia's ability to produce a Red and White vaccine for COVID-19 will be a big asset when developing other vaccines in the future, he pointed out. Even if there is a possibility of a pandemic occurring in the future, Indonesia will be better prepared to deal with it, including preparing the vaccines needed, he added.
"This is a valuable asset for researchers to develop other vaccines," Handoko remarked.
The development of the Red and White vaccine has brought a truly invaluable lesson and experience for the advancement of Indonesia's research and innovation, and has shown that it is a valuable future investment for Indonesia.
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Translator: Martha H S, Mecca Yumna
Editor: Sri Haryati
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