Vietnam to import 1 mln doses of Covid medicine from India

A deal was struck between a quick response team set up by the Vietnamese embassy in India and major pharmaceutical companies Hetero, Dr. Reddy, Cipla, Jubilant, Mylan, Zydus, and Cadila.

Vietnam's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and India's Ministry of Industry and Trade, at recent meetings with the team, promised all assistance for quickly completing export procedures.

The Indian government had banned the export of the drug following a major outbreak in April, but lifted it in mid-June.

India's remdesivir production capacity has increased from 3.8 million doses a month in April to 12.25 million doses, Minister of Health Mansukh Mandaviya said on August 3.

The number of factories licensed to produce it has also increased from 22 to 62.

Vietnam's Deputy Health Minister Nguyen Truong Son said Tuesday the ministry was considering adding remdesivir to Covid-19 treatment plans, saying the drug has already been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and many countries. Vietnam has also been using remdesivir to treat its Covid-19 patients in certain medical facilities, he added.

Vingroup has promised to donate another 500,000 doses of the drug to the Ministry of Health within August, with the first batch of 105,000 to arrive in HCMC before Thursday.

Remdesivir, developed by U.S. company Gilead Sciences, was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for Covid treatment last year, and is used in 50 countries including Australia, India and Japan.

Vietnam has had 170,512 cases of Covid since the outbreak began in early 2020, with HCMC accounting for 105,095.

Authorities have administered more than 7.2 million doses of vaccines, fully vaccinating 744,331 people so far.