Bio Farma: Sinovac’s Indonesian partner sets sights on making Chinese vaccines for Southeast Asia

The 130-year-old state-owned firm’s partnership with Sinovac could see Indonesia become a Southeast Asian production hub for Chinese vaccines

It began life in the Dutch colonial era. Several world class vaccines and a few name changes later, it is fighting both Covid-19 and a sceptical public

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An advertisement for a coronavirus vaccine in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 12:00pm, 15 Jan 2021Updated: 1:16pm, 15 Jan 2021

Indonesia’s ambitious vaccination drive to inoculate two thirds of its population of 270 million began on Wednesday when President Joko Widodo received a shot of Sinovac Biotech’s CoronaVac vaccine.

Southeast Asia’s largest economy intends to vaccinate its entire working population over the next 15 months, in a desperate bid to stem a pandemic that has infected some 869,000 people and killed 25,000.

Its success will rely partly on Bio Farma, a 130-year-old state-owned vaccine manufacturer.

As Indonesian and Chinese ministers met last August on Hainan island, Sinovac and Bio Farma sealed two agreements under which Sinovac would provide enough vaccine for 155 million doses (most of it in a bulk consignment) and Bio Farma would produce the individual vials.

If this arrangement works, and the two firms meet Indonesia’s domestic demand, the country could go on to become Southeast Asia’s production hub for Chinese-developed vaccines.