VIETNAM'S development of its own Covid-19 vaccine – Nanocovax – is nearing completion, with its manufacturer claiming an efficacy rate of 90 per cent.
The Nanogen Pharmaceutical Biotechnology JSC, which is developing the vaccine, said the efficacy rate was based on the results of the second phase of clinical research by Pasteur Institute in Ho Chi Minh City and recovered patients.
Nanogen's chairman Ho Nhan said the firm had send its reports on the trials to the Ministry of Health for approval.
According to a Vn Express report, the second phase of human trials for Nanocovax vaccine began on Feb 26 with 560 people divided into four groups for the placebo injection and doses of 25, 50 and 75 mg.
Nhan said the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology had evaluated the vaccine as "initially capable of neutralising the Delta variant".
He added Nanogen had requested the Ministry of Health to grant the vaccine an emergency use license.
On Saturday, the ministry's Ethical Evaluation Committee in Biomedical said that Nanocovax was "safe and able to elicit an immune response" but it had not assessed the vaccine's protection efficacy.
Authorities are expected to grant emergency approval for the vaccine as long as all the study results are approved by the ethical committee.
If everything goes as planned, Vietnam would have its first domestic Covid-19 vaccine in the fourth quarter of the year.
The third human trial of the vaccine is currently being carried out on 13,000 people in Hanoi, northern Hung Yen province and two Mekong Delta's provinces of Tien Giang and Long An.
Vietnam Military Medical University said on Friday that 8,500 volunteers have received their second Nanocovax dose, with the research team due to fully vaccinate another 4,500 before Aug 15.
The Health Ministry said it will also consult the World Health Organisation and South Korean experts on approving Nanocovax vaccine.
Vietnam has so far received about 19 million vaccine doses of various types and administered more than eight million of them, with 820,000 people getting both shots.
More than 10 per cent of its population aged over 18 have received at least one jab.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health warned it will cancel the allocation of Covid-19 vaccines to provinces that were slow in vaccinating their populations.
This comes after reports that many provinces were yet to even collect from warehouses, the vaccines they have been allocated.
The ministry said if they failed to collect it by Sunday, it will give the vaccines to others and consider not allocating them vaccines for future campaigns.
The ministry also called on all provinces and cities that have received vaccines to speed up immunisation as the Covid-19 outbreak was worsening.
On Saturday, Vietnam confirmed 7,333 new Covid cases in 38 cities and provinces, bringing the tally in the ongoing wave since late April to almost 200,000.
Current epicentre, Ho Chi Minh City led the day's tally with 3,930 cases, followed by its neighbours and industrial hubs Binh Duong (882), Dong Nai (709) and Long An (367).