Elly Burhaini Faizal, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Sat, 05/14/2011
Building up local basic research on vaccine development is the only way for Indonesia to gain “vaccine independence”, an expert says.
Iskandar, the president director of state-owned Bio Farma, said on Thursday that vaccine independence could be attained by increasing local capacities for conducting basic vaccine research.
“We may not be able to achieve vaccine independence in the absence of local basic research on vaccine development,” Iskandar said on the sidelines of a media gathering called “Towards the Independence of National Vaccine Industry”, held by state news agency Antara for Bio Farma’s 121st anniversary.
Indonesia is one of the few Asian countries with the capacity to produce vaccines. However, none of the locally produced vaccines are manufactured based on local basic research.
For example, Iskandar said Bio Farma had manufactured vaccines for years based on basic research developed by several global biotechnology companies from Australia, Japan, the Netherlands and South Africa.
“We have to pay royalties up to 5 percent of the total sales of the vaccines. It’s a huge amount,” he said, adding that such royalties would be moot if the vaccines were produced based on local basic research.
Bio Farma has exported vaccines to 110 countries since 1997. Ten were produced by Bio Farma, including those for diphteria, tetanus, pertussis-Hepatitis B (DTP-HB), DTP, measles, BCG and an oral polio vaccine (OPV).
Iskandar said developing local basic research was important to replacing the “clinical development” of foreign vaccine research.
Indonesia has been left behind by many countries which have developed “future vaccines”, such as vaccines for cancer, said Iskandar.
He said local vaccine research needed considerable funding. Bio Farma spent Rp 100 billion (US$11.7 million) per year on research.
Bio Farma, Indonesia’s only vaccine and antisera producer, plans to place representatives in several international bodies, including the World Health Organization and Unicef.
The placement would be to improve joint research and vaccine development needed to match the supply and demand for vaccine and antisera products.
“We need support from the government to facilitate the international placement,” Iskandar said.
He said the placement would improve the Indonesian pharmaceutical industry’s competitiveness, especially in vaccine production.
During the media gathering, Bio Farma gave influenza vaccines called “flubio” to the participants. Flubio, the newly introduced Bio Farma vaccine, prevents illnesses caused by Type A/California (H1N1), Type B/Victoria (H3N2), and Type C/Brisbane viruses.
“We developed the influenza vaccine when recent influenza cases hit Indonesia,” said Nurlaela, Bio Farma’s media relations officer.
Flubio can be given to people with chronic respiratory problems such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. A person with a chronic medical condition such as cardiovascular problems or diabetes or those with weak immune systems such as those with AIDS or Lupus may also receive the vaccine.
“Health workers with higher risks for flu viruses, people who live in endemic countries for influenza, those who plan to travel to areas with higher potentials of influenza, children above six years old and the elderly are recommended to have this vaccine,” Nurlaela said.
However, people with a history of severe allergic reaction to eggs and other flu vaccines, pregnant women and people with a history of Guillen-Barre Syndrome (GBS) are not recommended to have the vaccine.
Influenza viruses can replicate every year, and each place may have different types of the viruses, enabling them to deliver new variants that cannot be prevented naturally by the body’s immune system. Globally, about 250,000 to 500,000 people die of influenza every year.
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