Vingroup builds COVID-19 vaccine production line
VOV.VN - Vingroup, a leading Vietnamese multi-sectoral conglomerate, plans to build a COVID-19 vaccine production plant in Hanoi with a designed capacity of between 100-200 million doses a year.
This is one of the five key projects that have received the Hanoi municipal administration’s approval to be undertaken during the social distancing period in the capital.
Vingroup has negotiated with US-based Arcturus Therapeutics, a leading clinical-stage messenger RNA medicines company, on COVID-19 vaccine technology transfer.
Arcturus focuses on the development of infectious disease vaccines and rare liver and respiratory diseases. It has developed a vaccine called Arcturus COVID-19 using the same mRNA technology as the vaccines of Pfizer and Moderna.
Clinical trials are likely to begin in Vietnam in August, and production will be then deployed at the factory to be built in Hoa Lac industrial park on the outskirts of Hanoi. The vaccine is expected to be commercially marketed domestically in 2022, according to Vingroup.
More than 5.3 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in Vietnam, with nearly 500,000 people receiving the second shot.
The vaccination rate, currently at 5%, is rather low compared to 40% in Cambodia, and 17% in Thailand and Indonesia.