Tuesday, 23/03/2021 10:45 (GMT+7)
As a result of the efforts of Vietnamese COVID-19 vaccine producers, the country expects to export the vaccines to selective markets in the near future.
Covivac Vaccine (Photo: TNO)
After the first COVID-19 case entered Vietnam in early 2020 and the pandemic became tense, manufacturers immediately embarked on the vaccine research and production process. Four manufacturers participating in this race are the Company for Vaccine and Biological Production (Vabiotech), the Center for Research and Production of Vaccines and Biologicals (POLYVAC), the Institute of Vaccines and Medical Biologicals (Ivac) and the Nanogen Pharmaceutical Company.
Two Vietnamese vaccines have been undergoing human clinical trials with positive results, including Nanogen Pharmaceutical Company’s Nano Covax and Ivac’s Covivac. Accordingly, Nanogen has a production capacity of 70 million doses per year and Ivac is expected to reach about 30 million doses per year.
Deputy Minister of Health Tran Van Thuan said that the Covivac vaccine has undergone strict pre-clinical research. The initial results show that the vaccine is not only effective against common strains, but also the British and South African variants.
Meanwhile, Nano Covax vaccine underwent the second trial phase at the end of February and expects to end the third human trial in December.
Apart from these two vaccines, Mr. Do Tien Dat, Chairman of Vibiotech Company, said that the company has also completed the laboratory-scale production process and is evaluating the safety and immunity of the third Vietnamese vaccine on animals and preparing to conduct human trials.
Deputy Minister of Health Tran Van Thuan confidently affirmed that the progress of the three vaccine manufacturers mentioned above can help Vietnam actively prepare the source COVID-19 vaccine in the country by 2022, maybe even successfully exporting vaccines.
The expectations of the leaders of the Ministry of Health are completely grounded when Vietnam is one of 40 countries that have tested COVID-19 vaccine in humans. Vietnam is also one of 38 countries having vaccine management agencies according to the World Health Organization's standards, which is one of the conditions for vaccine cooperation and export with other countries./.
Compiled by BTA