JAKARTA (Reuters) – Indonesia has approved Sinovac Biotech’s COVID-19 vaccine for use in the elderly, shows a letter from the food and medicine agency, which may change the country’s strategy that has prioritized its population activate first.
This strategy was partly due to limited data on vaccine safety for the elderly, authorities have reported.
The Food and Drug Agency (BPOM) said in a letter seen by Reuters that it had authorized the use of Sinovac’s CoronaVac for the elderly “given the emergency situation of the COVID-19 pandemic and the limited information on the benefits and safety of this vaccine ”.
It was sent to the Indonesian partner of Sinovac, state-owned Bio Farma.
Wiku Adisasmito, spokesman for the country’s COVID-19 working group, confirmed the authenticity of the letter.
Bio Farma confirmed that it received the letter, although it did not provide further details.
The deployment of the Sinovac vaccine in Indonesia last month involved 3 million doses and was targeted at medical workers and civil servants.
Government data show nearly 800,000 have received their first shot, but authorities said they would be destined to produce 25 million more by the end of March.
Indonesia, which has suffered more than 31,000 deaths from COVID-19, aims to vaccinate more than 180 million people, or about two-thirds of its 270 million population, in a year.
Several countries such as the United States and Britain that have already started vaccinating give priority to older people who are more vulnerable to respiratory disease.
Indonesia’s health ministry declined to comment, though it has said the elderly will be scheduled to receive the vaccine before April.
Sinovac of China said Saturday that CoronaVac had been approved for the general public by the Chinese regulator of medical products.
A phase I and II trial in China showed that the vaccine could trigger a safe immune response for older participants, but Sinovac warned that data on the rate of protection among people aged 60 and over were ” limited “.
“When relevant institutions … use this vaccine, the need to inoculate this product should be assessed taking into account the health status and risk of exposure of this age group,” he said. .
Pandu Riono, an epidemiologist at the University of Indonesia, said that “if we want to reduce the number of hospitalizations, we should pursue vaccination for the elderly.”
Additional reports by Maikel Jefriando, Fathin Ungku; edited by Jason Neely