Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam is expected to have the first batch oflocally-produced COVID-19 vaccines at the end of the third quarter of 2021.

The statement was made by Deputy Director of the Departmentof Science Technology and Training under the Health Ministry Nguyen Ngo Quang,who is Chief of the Office of the National Programme on Vaccine Research andDevelopment, at a meeting of the Standing Board of the Steering Committee for InternationalCooperation in Clinical Trials of COVID-19 Vaccines on March 22.

Quang said that Vietnam is currently making research onthree types of COVID-19 vaccine.

Accordingly, the second phase of human trials on NanoCovaxvaccine, produced by the Nanogen Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, is beingconducted, with the second dose to be injected on March 26.

The results of the second phase are expected to be announcedin May as scheduled, while the third phase will be conducted from May toSeptember. The vaccine is hoped to be registered for circulation in September,three months shorter than planned. Earlier, the trial time of the second phasewas also shortened from six months to three months.

A system on monitoring and assessing vaccines’ protectionefficiency in Vietnam and other countries is expected to be operated fromSeptember 2021 – September 2022.

Meanwhile, the first injections of the first phase of humantrials on Vietnam’s second homegrown candidate vaccine COVIVAC, developed bythe Institute of Vaccines and Medical Biologicals (IVAC), were made on March15.
The first phase of human trials on the country’s third homegrowncandidate vaccine, developed by VABIOTECH, is hoped to begin in April.

Standing members of the Steering Committee for InternationalCooperation in Clinical Trials of COVID-19 Vaccines agreed that the outcomes ofpre-clinical trials of all three vaccines were assessed good thanks toVietnamese units’ close coordination with prestigious vaccine producers andresearch units over the world and their compliance with international standardsand procedures in vaccine research and development.

Speaking at the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam,who is head of the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention andControl, hailed efforts made by the Ministries of Health and Science andTechnology, and vaccine research and development units.

He requested extra efforts to speed updomestically-developed vaccine research and production.

At the event, the Health Ministry affirmed that it has nopolicy that allows businesses and companies to import COVID-19 vaccines./.