PM orders facilitating COVID-19 vaccine production
VOV.VN - The best conditions should be created for research institutions to produce COVID-19 vaccines locally, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said at a meeting with permanent Cabinet members in Hanoi on Dec. 21.
Emphasizing the importance of COVID-19 vaccines, Phuc assigned the Ministry of Health, in collaboration with the Ministry of Science and Technology and relevant agencies, to evaluate vaccine production capacity of domestic enterprises in order to take appropriate and timely support measures.
He requested that the Ministry of Health study the COVID-19 vaccine clinical trial of countries around the world to speed up the clinical trial of Nano Covax vaccine, the first of its kind to be produced locally by the Nanogen Pharmaceutical Biotechnology JSC (Nanogen).
He ordered the Ministry of Health to support Nanogen in seeking foreign partners in the clinical trial of Nano Covax vaccine (phase 3).
It is imperative to set up a vaccine research and development center in Vietnam to develop vaccines against infectious diseases in humans, said Phuc.
The Government leader asked the Military Medicine Academy to work closely with relevant institutions and agencies to draft a project on building such a center and submit to competent authorities for approval.
The PM also asked the Ministry of Health to consider purchasing COVID-19 vaccines from abroad to soon “have a number of vaccines on hand necessary to protect people’s health.”
Vietnam began first human clinical tests of locally produced COVID-19 vaccine – Nano Covax – on Dec. 17. The three-phase testing is expected to last several months. Experts will assess the safety and efficiency of the vaccine before the vaccine is commercially marketed.
Nano Covax is one of the four COVID-19 vaccines under research and development in Vietnam. Three other vaccines are being produced by the Company for Vaccine and Biological Production No.1 (Vabiotech), the Institute of Vaccines and Medical Biological Medical (IVAC), and the Centre for Immunization Vaccines (Polyvac).
