Indonesia’s plan to sell Chinese vaccines to the public postponed amid criticism | The powerful 790 KFGO

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By Agustinus Beo Da Costa and Stanley Widianto

JAKARTA (Reuters) An Indonesian pharmaceutical company has postponed a plan to sell a Chinese vaccine against COVID-19 directly to the public, as health experts criticized that such commercial programs could bypass vulnerable groups in a country that promised free vaccines to everyone.

The outcry came as coronavirus cases and deaths from the virus hit record highs, pushing the healthcare system near breaking point in parts of the densely populated island of Java.

State-owned pharmaceutical company Kimia Farma said on Monday it had decided to suspend plans to sell the Sinopharm vaccine in order to allow more time to explain it to the public.

For now, we have postponed it because it has generated a lot of interest, said Novia Valentina, spokesperson for Kimia Farma Apotek, a subsidiary of the state-owned company.

The company previously said the program, which included offering the vaccine in pharmacies for 879,140 rupees ($ 60.53) for two doses, would help speed up herd immunity.

But health experts said the priority should be getting free vaccines distributed to all vulnerable groups to avoid the risk of inequity.

Later, if vaccines are plentiful then there might be an option for paid vaccines, but not now, said Diah Saminarsih, senior adviser to the director-general of the World Health Organization.

The Health Ministry declined to comment on the decision, directing questions to Kimia Farma.

The Sinopharm vaccine is already available in the Southeast Asian country through a program that allows private companies to purchase vaccines for their employees.

Indonesia has recorded more than 2.5 million cases of the coronavirus and a total of 64,000 deaths from respiratory disease, one of Asia’s worst epidemics.

Nonetheless, some public health experts believe the scale of the epidemic is vastly underestimated.

A serological study released over the weekend by the Jakartas government found that 44.5%, or 4.7 million, of the city’s population of 10.6 million had COVID-19 antibodies as of March.

This compares to just 8.1% of confirmed cases, most of them asymptomatic, according to the study conducted in collaboration with the University of Indonesia, the Eijkman Institute and CDC Indonesia.

(Written by Kate Lamb; edited by Ed Davies)

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