Jakarta, May 15 -- The Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM) has authorized phase 3 clinical trials of the M72 tuberculosis (TB) vaccine in Indonesia to determine its efficacy.

BPOM head Taruna Ikrar stated on Thursday that this TB vaccine trial offers significant benefits for Indonesia, including renewed strategies for TB management. He noted that Indonesia has the second highest number of TB sufferers after India.

He remarked that currently, TB treatment involves several drugs: isoniazid, rifampicin, and ethambutol.

"The combination of these three drugs, due to their long-term use, causes some kind of resistance that is hard to cure," he stated.

Meanwhile, Ikrar pointed out that the existing Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine i...