The Hanoi Medical University on Monday will start the clinical trials on the second locally-produced Covid-19 vaccine called Covivac.
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Vu Dinh Thiem, director of the Centre for Clinical Trials under the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology said that six out of 120 volunteers aged between 18-59 would be given the first shots of the Covivac vaccine today.
"The next group of volunteers will get the vaccines after eight days," he said, adding that the volunteers will be given two shots with the second shot coming 28 days after the first one.
Covivac vaccine which is developed by the Institute of Vaccines and Medical Biologicals (IVAC) has recorded a strong immunological effect on laboratory animals and has so far proved to be safe through pre-clinical assessments conducted in India, the US, and Vietnam.
According to director of the Institute of Vaccines and Medical Biologicals (IVAC), Duong Huu Thai, the research project on the vaccine has been running since May, 2020, with the co-operation of scientists from universities, research institutes, and international organisations, adding that it has been produced from embryonic egg production technology, which is safe for animals.
The vaccine was also proved to be effective against the new SARS-CoV strain detected in both the UK and South Africa, he said.
Covivac, which is the second made-in-Vietnam Covid-19 vaccine, is expected to be launched later this year after passing through three phases of human trials. Moving forward, the IVAC plans to offer the Covivac vaccine at a price of VND60,000 per dose.
Meanwhile, the first domestically-produced Covid-19 vaccine, Nanocovax, moved onto its second phase of human trials on February 26.
Vietnam is carrying out the first Covid-19 vaccination programme using the AstraZeneca from the UK.
As of March 15, 11,605 people, all of them are medical workers and members of the Covid-19 prevention and control teams, had been vaccinated according to the National Expanded Immunisation Programme.
On March 15 morning, Vietnam recorded no new Covi-19 infection cases, keeping the national infection tally at 2,554, including 1,594 cases of local transmission and 960 imported ones.