President demands early approval for Vietnam's homegrown Covid vaccine

The Ministry of Health and related agencies need to create favorable conditions, reform administrative procedures, shorten the vaccine production process while ensuring people's health, Phuc told a meeting with Nanogen Pharmaceutical Biotechnology JSC in HCMC on Thursday.

As the community outbreak in Ho Chi Minh City is developing complicatedly, vaccine now plays a key role, he said.

"In such an urgent context, it is imperative to consider early approval for Vietnamese vaccine to soon put it into use. Safety requirements are top priority, but all related procedures must be done quickly," Phuc said.

Nanocovax by Nanogen is currently the Vietnamese vaccine that is closest completion as its third and final phase of human trials is being conducted.

Ho Nhan, General Director of Nanogen, said that in the initial assessment, the Nanocovax vaccine is safe for people and creates certain protection against the Delta variant of the new coronavirus.

To cope with the new strains of the virus, the company has studied and made adjustments to increase the effectiveness of the vaccine.

"The vaccine has been tested on thousands of people, and there have been no cases of complicated reactions or fatalities," he said.

He said the company can produce over 10 million doses per month and by October 2021 onward, it could raise the capacity to 30 million doses per month.

The Nanocovax vaccine is expected to cost VND120,000 ($5.23) per dose.

Vietnam has received over 14.8 million Covid-19 vaccine doses via contracts, global mechanism Covax and other countries' donations. The country has vaccinated more than 5.52 million people against Covid-19, including 546,402 who have got two shots.

The nation is suffering the most challenging Covid-19 wave ever, recording almost 130,000 infections in in over three months.

HCMC is now the worst-hit locality, with more than 84,500 cases.