Vietnam successfully produces Sputnik V vaccine
VOV.VN - VABIOTECH, one of Vietnam’s leading pharmaceutical companies, has successfully produced its first batch of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19, VABIOTECH announced.
Dr. Do Tuan Dat, VABIOTECH director, made the announcement, citing a vaccine quality control appraisal report by the Gamaleya National Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology, the developer of the vaccine in Russia that said the vaccine produced in Vietnam has met its quality standard.
VABIOTECH has partnered with the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) to produce the Sputnik V vaccine in Vietnam. The initial test batch came out in July and samples were sent back to Gamaleya for quality control.
“The production of these doses will help Vietnamese people gain easier access to quality vaccine source, contributing to the COVID-19 fight,” said Dr. Dat.
As scheduled, the Sputnik V will be used as part of the country’s National Expanded Programme for Immunisation, an important factor as it is dealing with a severe fourth wave of infections while vaccines are in short supply.
Sputnik V, known as VGam-COVID-Vac, is one of the COVID-19 vaccines with a publicly available price of less than US$10 per jab. It also can be stored at standard refrigerator temperatures of between 2-8 degrees Celsius.
The vaccine is based on a proven and well-studied platform of human adenoviral vectors and makes use of two different vectors for both shots in a course of vaccination, thereby providing immunity with a longer duration than vaccines which use the same delivery mechanism for two jabs.
Russia says the efficacy of the vaccine is 97.6%.
