Antara News·Indonesia·Friday, September 4, 2026 at 09:16 AM

Indonesia, CEPI test 100-day vaccine push in pandemic drill

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Mecca Yumna Ning Prisie, Yashinta Difa

Jakarta (ANTARA) - Indonesia’s Health Ministry, in collaboration with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), conducted a two-day preparedness simulation titled "Mission 100 Days" to evaluate national response speed against potential novel pandemic threats, known as "Disease X".

The exercise makes Indonesia the third country in the world, following South Korea and Rwanda, to test its end-to-end pandemic response architecture alongside CEPI, covering biosurveillance, rapid vaccine development, manufacturing, and medical logistics distribution.

Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin emphasized that national biosecurity capabilities should be funded and prioritized with the same gravity as military defense.

"Pandemics have claimed more lives than wars. The Black Death is estimated to have killed around 200 million people, more than the victims of World War II. Therefore, we must invest in health like defense to save lives," Sadikin said on Friday.

During the Tabletop Exercise (TTX), more than 120 experts from government ministries, research institutions, regulatory bodies, and industry stakeholders evaluated the feasibility of developing and producing a viable vaccine within 100 days of identifying a new pathogen.

Participants worked through a fictional outbreak scenario featuring "Nipah-X," a mutated, lethal zoonotic pathogen capable of spilling over from livestock to humans and sustaining human-to-human transmission.

To support the 100-day target, Indonesia is streamlining its early detection framework by introducing Point-of-Care Testing (POCT) rapid kits in primary health centers and expanding regional genomic sequencing infrastructure.

On the industrial side, the government has engaged domestic pharmaceutical manufacturers, including PT Bio Farma, PT Etana Biotechnologies Indonesia, and PT Biotis Pharmaceuticals, to guarantee rapid mass-production capacity during a health crisis.

CEPI Executive Director Richard Hatchett highlighted Indonesia's strategic significance in regional health security, praising its research infrastructure and regulatory readiness.

"Indonesia is a strategic partner of CEPI. Simulation exercises like this help build relationships and operational readiness, as well as identify gaps that must be closed to enable a much faster response to the next outbreak," Hatchett stated.

Meanwhile, Food and Drug Authority (BPOM) Head Taruna Ikrar affirmed that accelerated vaccine approval timelines will not compromise safety or efficacy standards.

BPOM is finalizing a conditional approval framework to complement existing Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) protocols.

"Accelerating innovation must go hand in hand with meeting safety, quality, and efficacy standards. Acceleration must not mean compromising on these standards," Ikrar stressed.

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