UNAIR NEWS – Minister of Research and Technology (Menristek) and Head of National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) Bambang Brodjonegoro paid a visit to Universitas Airlangga on Friday, December 4, 2020. He signed two inscription awards for two laboratories handling Covid-19 at UNAIR.
The signing of the inscription awards from the Minister of Research and Technology / Head of National Research and Innovation Agency was given to PUI-PT Biological Molecular Engineering Research Center and UNAIR Vaccine Development Technology Research Center. The award was given for the scientific work carried out by UNAIR in dealing with Covid-19 outbreak that is currently hitting the world.
Prior to the signing of the inscription awards, the Minister of Research and Technology / Head of National Research and Innovation Agency held a joint meeting and discussion with the entire research team including those from Universitas Airlangga (UNAIR) Hospital (RSUA) and Dr Soetomo Hospital. The meeting also involved a team from PT Biotis Pharmaceutical Indonesia as a partner.
“Our team is a large team, starting from the recombinant viral vector determination team, animal testing team, to clinical trial team, which in this case involves RSUA and Dr Soetomo Hospital. We have conducted vaccine research from the start of the consortium with colleagues at the hospitals,” said Prof. Ni Nyoman Tri Puspaningsih as a researcher from the consortium for UNAIR Merah Putih vaccine development.
In the process, UNAIR collaborated with PT Biotis Pharmaceutical Indonesia for animal trials and in this stage of animal testing, PT Biotis Pharmaceutical Indonesia also collaborates with the Food and Drug Supervisory Agency (BPOM), so that all stages, from pre-clinical trials and clinical trials, supervised by BPOM.
The development of UNAIR Merah Putih Vaccine has passed stage 1, 2, and 3 tests, which are the design stage, the formation of recombinant viral vectors and the validation stage.
According to the research timeline that has been made, this December, the preclinical test has begun, the animal trial which includes rats and monkeys. If all the animal testing processes are successful and effective, they will then be tested on humans.
“If all these processes run smoothly, Insha Allah, in the middle of 2021, we will start the clinical trial, and of course, before entering the clinical trial, must be registered first to BPOM,” said Prof. Nyoman
In addition to the viral vector platform for Merah Putih vaccine, the UNAIR research team also developed the peptide platform and it also completed the first three stages. Hopefully, animal testing on the peptide platform will also begin at the same time as Merah Putih vaccine. (*)
Author: Binti Q. Masruroh
