Vietnam is expected to have the first batch of locally-produced COVID-19 vaccines at the end of the third quarter of 2021.
The statement was made by Deputy Director of the Department of Science Technology and Training under the Health Ministry Nguyễn Ngô Quang, who is Chief of the Office of the National Programme on Vaccine Research and Development, at a meeting of the Standing Board of the Steering Committee for International Cooperation in Clinical Trials of COVID-19 Vaccines on March 22.
Quang said that Vietnam is currently making research on three types of COVID-19 vaccine.
Accordingly, the second phase of human trials on NanoCovax vaccine, produced by the Nanogen Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, is being conducted, with the second dose to be injected on March 26.
The results of the second phase are expected to be announced in May as scheduled, while the third phase will be conducted from May to September. The vaccine is hoped to be registered for circulation in September, three months shorter than planned. Earlier, the trial time of the second phase was also shortened from six months to three months.
A system on monitoring and assessing vaccines’ protection efficiency in Vietnam and other countries is expected to be operated from September 2021 – September 2022.
Meanwhile, the first injections of the first phase of human trials on Vietnam’s second homegrown candidate vaccine COVIVAC, developed by the Institute of Vaccines and Medical Biologicals (IVAC), were made on March 15.
The first phase of human trials on the country’s third homegrown candidate vaccine, developed by VABIOTECH, is hoped to begin in April.
Standing members of the Steering Committee for International Cooperation in Clinical Trials of COVID-19 Vaccines agreed that the outcomes of pre-clinical trials of all three vaccines were assessed good thanks to Vietnamese units’ close coordination with prestigious vaccine producers and research units over the world and their compliance with international standards and procedures in vaccine research and development.
Speaking at the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Vũ Đức Đam, who is head of the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control, hailed efforts made by the Ministries of Health and Science and Technology, and vaccine research and development units.
He requested extra efforts to speed up domestically-developed vaccine research and production.
At the event, the Health Ministry affirmed that it has no policy that allows businesses and companies to import COVID-19 vaccines./.
