Additional 12,000 volunteers get second Nano Covax vaccine shots in third trial phase

They are among 13,000 volunteers involving in the third trial phase, 1,000 of whom already received the second doses on July 22.

Lieutenant Colonel Associate Prof. Dr. Chu Van Men, Director of the Center for Clinical Trials and Bioequivalence under the Military Medical University, said that all the volunteers, receiving only the 25mcg doses, are in stable health conditions.

Nano Covax has been developed by the Nanogen Pharmaceutical Biotechnology JSC based on recombinant DNA/protein technology from May 2020.  

It went through the first phase trial from December 18, 2020, and the second phase from February 26, 2021. The third phase started on June 11, 2021.

Results from the first two trial phases showed that all volunteers developed antibodies against SARS-CoV-2.

The Ministry of Health and the National Council of Ethics in Biomedical Research on June 25 agreed with the Pasteur Institute in Ho Chi Minh City and the Military Medical University to speed up the third-phase clinical trial of the vaccine in which volunteers were expected to have received the first jabs by July 15 and the second shots by August 15. 

Vietnam has so far approved six vaccines for emergency use, namely Janssen, Moderna, Sputnik V, Pfizer, Sinopharm and AstraZeneca.

The Government is making efforts to secure at least 150 million vaccine doses to inoculate 70 percent of the population.

On July 27 morning, Vietnam confirmed an additional 2,764 COVID-19 cases, raising the national total to 109,111. The number of cases reported since the fourth coronavirus wave hit the country in late April reached 105,338./.