Vietnam researches production of single-dose Covid-19 vaccine

By Le Nga June 12, 2021 | 05:30 am PT

A man receives his Covid-19 vaccine shot at Pasteur Institute, HCMC, May 11 2021. Photo by VnExpress/Huu Khoa.

The Health Ministry on Saturday stated a Vietnamese enterprise is in talks with a U.S. manufacturer regarding technology transfer to produce a one-dose Covid-19 vaccine with high protection.

The names of the Vietnamese enterprise and the U.S. manufacturer have not yet been revealed.

The ministry said the Vietnamese company has been negotiating with the U.S. manufacturer about the conditions for the mRNA vaccine technology transfer. The mRNA vaccine has finished its first and second phase clinical trials and requires only a single injection of 5 milligrams with high protection, stored at temperatures of 2-8 degrees Celsius.

The factory invested by this Vietnamese company in line with the manufacturer's technology standards will have a capacity of 100-200 million doses per year and is expected to start production from the fourth quarter this year or early 2022.

Most current Covid-19 vaccines require two injections, except for American pharmaceutical firm Johnson & Johnson's vaccine, which needs only one.

According to the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), new mRNA vaccines can protect against infectious diseases. This kind of vaccine is proved to have an efficacy of 94.8 percent against Covid-19.

The ministry said Vietnamese pharmaceutical firm Vaccine and Biological Production Company No. 1 (Vabiotech) is also in talks with a Japanese partner to soon receive the transfer of vaccine production tech.

Vabiotech said it has cooperated with Russia to begin creating vials for Sputnik V this July, with an expected capacity of around five million doses a month. Russia said it too may transfer its vaccine production technology to Vietnam in future.

The health ministry has successfully negotiated to get more than 120 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines from multiple sources in 2021, including AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Moderna and the Covax facility.

Vietnam currently aims to secure 150 million Covid-19 vaccine doses to cover 70 percent of its population by this year. The ministry said it would not only seek multiple sources for Covid-19 vaccines, but also strive to be a part of the tech transfer process so Vietnam could produce vaccines itself.

Vietnam has been carrying out a mass vaccination campaign since March, under which more than 1.3 million people have received their shots of the AstraZeneca vaccine.