Tuyen said at the Government’s press conference on April 4 that from the very beginning when the pandemic broke out in Vietnam, the Ministry of Health (MOH) instructed and encouraged businesses and research units to develop vaccines.

There are three vaccine candidates, namely Nanocovax developed by Nanogen, Covivac by IVAC (International Vaccine Access Center) and ARCT-154, a technology transfer project.

Of the three vaccines, Nanocovax is under Phase 3 of clinical trial review. The vaccine has been evaluated by the National Ethics Council in Biomedical Research (Ethics Council) as well as the Ministry of Health’s Advisory Council on granting drug and medicinal ingredient registration certificates.

According to Tuyen, Nanogen is collecting and supplementing data as required. After that, the councils will continue to meet to make assessments and if the vaccine can satisfy requirements, the Advisory Council on granting drug and medicinal ingredient registration certificates will propose the licensing of the vaccine. 

For IVAC’s Covivac, the vaccine is under Phase 2 of research after it had a mid-term assessment of Phase 1 of the clinical trial. The research unit is preparing for Phase 3 of the clinical trial.

As for ARCT-154, Tuyen said this is a technology transfer project from the US. The mid-term Phase 2 assessment has been made, and Phase 3 is being implemented. The vaccine has been used on 1,000 volunteers.

“All three candidate vaccines are under clinical trials. Once vaccine research units can provide sufficient documents and data as per the request of the Ethics Council and the Advisory Board, MOH will license the vaccines based on the assessments of the two councils if the vaccines can satisfy the requirements,” Tuyen said.

Vaccines require thorough safety assessments, including assessments of immediate adverse effects and long-term effects. He said that Vietnam will not grant licenses if there is no sufficient research and assessments.

Thu Hang