Vietnam to buy 10 million Covid-19 vaccine doses from Cuba

In a resolution issued Monday on buying Cuba’s Abdala vaccine, produced by the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB), the government said the doses will be procured by a contractor chosen in line with the Law on Bidding for "special cases."

The resolution accepts the usual disclaimers for emergency use vaccines and that any contract dispute will be handled in accordance with Cuban law. In case the two parties in the contract cannot reach an agreement, the settlement shall be based on the Arbitration Rules of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) in Paris, France.

The purchase decision follows the Health Ministry granting emergency use approval for Cuba’s Abdala Covid-19 vaccine Friday.

The vaccine employs a traditional approach by using a part of the spike protein, which the virus uses to bind to human cells, to build up the immune reaction.

Cuba approved emergency use of the Abdala vaccine on July 9 after manufacturers announced it was more than 92 percent effective with three doses. It is seeking the World Health Organization approval for the vaccine, with the vetting process started Thursday last week.

Abdala is the eighth Covid-19 vaccine approved for emergency use in Vietnam. The others are U.K.’s AstraZeneca, the U.S.’s Johnson & Johnson, Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech, Russia’s SputnikV, China’s Sinopharm and the UAE’s Hayat-Vax.

The nation has administered more than 34 million Covid-19 people, with around 6.5 million getting two doses.