A female volunteer is injected with Vietnam’s Covid-19 vaccine. British drugmaker AstraZeneca has committed to providing Vietnam some 30 million doses of its Covid-19 vaccine this year - PHOTO: VNA
HCMC - British drugmaker AstraZeneca has committed to providing Vietnam some 30 million doses of its Covid-19 vaccine this year, with the first doses set to be transported to the country in the first quarter of 2021.
The Ministry of Health this morning, January 30, announced that its advisory council for granting the registration for medicine circulation had given the go ahead for AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine, the first Covid-19 vaccine to be approved for use in Vietnam by the Ministry of Health.
Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long said that apart from the projected supply of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine, the ministry was still working with other international drugmakers such as Pfizer and Moderna to ramp up the number of Covid-19 vaccines for the Vietnamese people.
As for the locally made vaccines, the ministry told drugmakers to continue conducting research and clinical trials to produce them as soon as possible, the local media reported.
The first phase of clinical trials for Nanocovax, a Covid-19 vaccine developed by Vietnam's Nanogen, has ended, the ministry said, adding that the second phase will begin in February.
Besides, human trials of the Covivax vaccine, produced by the Khanh Hoa- based Institute of Vaccines and Medical Biologicals (IVAC), began its first phase on January 21 and is set to start the second one in March.
