Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh at a working session with leaders of ministries, vaccine producers and scientists in Hanoi on July 23 (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) – PrimeMinister Pham Minh Chinh has directed speeding up the production of home-grown vaccines, saying they must ensure safety and efficiency.
He gave the direction during aworking session with leaders of ministries, vaccine producers and scientists inHanoi on July 23 to discuss the research and production of COVID-19 vaccines.
Speaking at the event, Chinhstressed that Vietnam is rolling out “vaccine strategy”, including importing; studying,facilitating vaccine production technology transfer and producing home-grown vaccines; andvaccinating the whole population for free.
The Health Ministry reportedthat Nanocovax produced by the Nanogen Pharmaceutical Biotechnology JSC and Covivac by the Institute of Vaccines andMedical Biologicals are under clinical trials.
ForNanocovax, the first shots were given to 13,007 volunteers in the third phasewhile the second shots were offered to 977 others. The phase is scheduled to becompleted by August 15.
So far,three domestic units and enterprises have negotiated with partners from the US,Japan and Russia about technology transfer.
If trialsare successful, units plan to begin producing vaccines with an annual capacityof 200-300 million doses from late 2021.
Participantssuggested tackling obstacles in mechanisms regarding the research, productionand transfer of vaccine production technology, including soon submitting amendmentsto the Law on Pharmacy to serve the urgent licensing of COVID-19 vaccines.
Concludingthe event, Chinh directed the Health Ministry to establish a working team incharge of partnering with World Health Organisation (WHO)’s experts to study,clinically test and assessing home-grown vaccines./.
