JAKARTA (Reuters) – Indonesia has approved Sinovac Biotech’s COVID-19 vaccine for use in the elderly, shows a letter from the food and drug agency, potentially changing the country’s strategy that prioritized the active population first.
That strategy was partly due to limited data on vaccine safety for the elderly, officials said.
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 “taking into account the emergency situation of the COVID-19 pandemic and the limited information on the benefits and safety of this vaccine ”.
He was sent to Sinovac’s Indonesian partner, the state-owned Bio Farma.
Wiku Adisasmito, spokesman for the country’s task force COVID-19, confirmed the letter’s authenticity.
Bio Farma confirmed receipt of the letter, but did not provide further details.
The launch of the Sinovac vaccine in Indonesia last month involved 3 million doses and was aimed at medical workers and civil servants.
Government data shows that almost 800,000 received the first shot, but officials said they are expected to produce an additional 25 million by the end of March.
Indonesia, which has suffered more than 31,000 deaths from COVID-19, plans to vaccinate more than 180 million people, or about two-thirds of its population of 270 million, in one year.
Several countries, such as the United States and Britain, which have already started vaccination, are prioritizing the elderly most vulnerable to respiratory diseases.
Indonesia’s Ministry of Health declined to comment, although it said the elderly should receive the vaccine in April.
China’s Sinovac said on Saturday that CoronaVac was approved for use by the general public by China’s medical device regulator.
A Phase I and II trial in China showed that the vaccine can safely trigger an immune response for older participants, but Sinovac warned that data for the protection rate among people aged 60 and over was “limited”.
“When the competent institutions … use this vaccine, the need to inoculate this product must be assessed taking into account the health status and the risk of exposure for this age group,” he said.
Pandu Riono, an epidemiologist at the University of Indonesia, said that “if we want to contain the number of hospitalizations, we should seek immunization for the elderly”.
Additional reporting by Maikel Jefriando, Fathin Ungku; edition by Jason Neely