State president urges for locally-made Covid-19 vaccine completion

State President Nguyen Xuan Phuc has urged the Ministry of Health to issue licenses to locally-made Nanocovax Covid-19 vaccine as quickly as possible.

State President Nguyen Xuan Phuc has urged the Ministry of Health to issue licenses to locally-made Nanocovax Covid-19 vaccine as quickly as possible.

  

State President Nguyen Xuan Phuc (middle) visits Nanogen

On July 29, State President Nguyen Xuan Phuc visited the headquarter of Nanogen, the manufacturer of Nanocovax Vaccine, in Thu Duc City.

"Covid-19 is threatening the lives of people in HCM City. Favourable conditions should be created and procedures must be simplified to produce the vaccine," he said.

Ho Nhan, director of Nanogen, said the trials show that Nanocovax is safe for use and effective against the Delta variant to some extent. They are adjusting the vaccine so that it can be effective against new variants. The vaccine is going through the third stage of trials.

  

Nanocovax being developed by Nanogen

During the clinical trials, only a few people had a light fever and there were no fatalities. Nanogen can provide 10 million doses per month. They have invested in four more production lines and raw materials to produce 30 million doses per month, starting from October. The vaccine prices have been approved by the Ministry of Science and Technology at VND120,000 per dose.

"We believed that Nanocovax can help provinces fight against Covid-19," Nhan said.

He also asked the prime minister and Ministry of Health to issue urgent licences to give Nanocovax in some provinces and cities.

Phuc said Vietnam must speed up the process to produce vaccines based on the results of the trials. He also asked the Ministry of Health to review and issue the licence to Nanocovax.

"Nanogen must always improve to be better. Safety is the top priority," he said. "There is a vaccine shortage across the globe, especially in developing countries with large populations. We not only must produce vaccines for our residents but also aim to provide vaccines to other countries in need."