Indonesia to produce Merck's HPV vaccines to combat cervical cancer

[December 13, 2022]  JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia will produce drugmaker Merck & Co's vaccines for human papillomavirus (HPV), the chief of its state-owned pharmaceutical company Bio Farma said on Tuesday, in a bid to combat HPV-linked cervical cancer in the country.

Cervical cancer is the fourth-most common cancer among women globally, with an estimated 604,000 new cases and 342,000 deaths in 2020, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). About 90% of new cases and deaths worldwide occurred in low- and middle-income countries that year.

In Indonesia, the disease killed more than 36,000 people in 2021, the health ministry said, adding that the Bio Farma-Merck deal was meant to stem the number of cervical cancer cases in the country.

Honesti Basyir, chief of Bio Farma, said in a statement the company on Tuesday signed a technology transfer deal with Merck & Co, one of the world's main makers of HPV vaccines, to help produce the Merck shots in the country.

The Merck logo is seen at a gate to the Merck & Co campus in Rahway, New Jersey, U.S., July 12, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo

Indonesian authorities aim to give the shots to 1.4 million girls next year, the company said, adding it aimed to produce 2.8 million doses given the two-shot regime recommended to inoculate against HPV-linked cervical cancer.

Bio Farma did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the timeline of the production.

At the moment, two- or three-dose regimens are recommended, but the WHO's Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization said evidence showed that one dose was as effective.

(Reporting by Stanley Widianto; Editing by Kanupriya Kapoor)

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