BPOM Authorizes 5 Vaccines for Booster

TheIndonesia.id - Indonesia’s Drug and Food Control Agency (BPOM) has approved the use of five COVID-19 vaccines as booster to improve antibody.

The Agency decided to issue emergency use authorization (UEA) after evaluation with experts found the vaccines to have met the standards and requirements.

“There are five vaccines that have received EUA through evaluation process with medicine and vaccine expert team,” head of BPOM Penny Lukito said in Jakarta on Monday, January 10, as reported by Antara.

The five vaccines are CoronaVac, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Moderna, and Zifivax.

According to Lukito, one additional homologous dose of CoronaVac can be administered to people aged 18 and above, six months after primary vaccination.

“Immunogenicity [test result] shows improving neutralizing antibody titers by 21 to 35 times, 28 days after the CoronaVac is administered to adult subject,” she said, adding that the adverse events following immunization (AEFI) include local reactions, such as soreness and redness at the injection spot.

Pfizer vaccine, meanwhile, is to be injected to people aged 18 and above, at least six months after primary vaccine. Almost similarly, the AEFI include pain, headache, sore muscle, and fever. Immunogenicity test resulted in improving neutralizing antibody titers by 3.3 times, one month after vaccination.

For AstraZeneca, the immunogenicity test shows improving antibody by around 3.5 times.

Lukito explained that Moderna can be administered to complete both doses of AstraZeneca, Pfizer, and Johnson and Johnson, and half dose of Moderna vaccine can work to complement the primary vaccination.

“Moderna [vaccine] shows 13 times of immunogenicity after administered to subjects aged 18 and older,” she said.

Zifivax can also work as heterologous booster, and test shows improving neutralizing antibody titers by up to 30 times.

The booster rollout will start on Wednesday, January 12, and spokesperson for COVID-19 vaccination Siti Nadia Tarmizi said the COVID-19 booster shot will be both free and paid.

According to her, the free boosters will be subsidized by the Indonesian government to be given to Penerima Bantuan Iuran (PBI), or recipients of contribution assistance, especially the elderlies who are more vulnerable to hospitalization when infected.