Indonesia launches its first home-grown COVID-19 vaccines

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia's leader launched the country’s first home-grown COVID-19 shot Thursday to help reduce the world’s fourth most populous nation’s dependency on imported vaccines.

President Joko Widodo announced the vaccine brand, IndoVac, as a new milestone of Indonesia’s pharmaceutical industry that will manufacture primary series vaccines, booster vaccines and vaccines for children, which have been in development since November 2021.

“From now on, we can produce our own COVID-19 vaccine,” Widodo said in an unveiling ceremony in West Java’s Bandung city. “And so we have independence in vaccine matters.”

During the ceremony, 15 residents who had not received any COVID-19 vaccine got their first IndoVac jabs.