Vietnam has completed negotiations with at least four pharmaceutical companies to buy more than 120 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine this year, the Ministry of Health has announced.

In the next two months, Vietnam will have at least 5 million more doses of AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines, according to Deputy Health Minister Do Xuan Tuyen.

Vietnam is expected to get 31 million COVID-19 vaccine doses developed by US-based firm Pfizer in the third and fourth quarters of 2021, said the Ministry of Health (MoH).

Vietnam’s Prime Minister said purchasing vaccine is an urgent task and must be done at the earliest.

The US announcement to support the waiver of IP protection on Covid-19 vaccine has not been the good news that was previously expected.

Pfizer, Sanofi, and GlaxoSmithKline are reported to plan increasing drug prices in the US in 2020, triggering public concerns over a similar hike in Vietnam.

 Pfizer Inc and Japan’s Astellas Pharma Inc said on Thursday their blockbuster prostate cancer drug met the main goal of a key study that tested it for treating the disease in its early stages.

 Pfizer's breast cancer drug Ibrance, or palbociclib, is too expensive to justify its use on Britain's state-run health service, the country's healthcare cost-effectiveness watchdog said on Friday.