Russia's Sputnik V vaccine.

At the meeting of the National Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control on August 14, Acting Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long said that some countries have had Covid-19 vaccine. Particularly, there are still many different opinions about the vaccine of Russia.

The committee’s members reiterated there’s no end in sight to the pandemic until an effective medicine or vaccine is obtained so the Ministry of Health still registered to buy it.

The registration shows that Vietnam wants to cooperate with Russia and if Russia agrees, it will provide the vaccine for Vietnam to test. But it can take at least half a year from the trial stage to the widespread use of vaccine.

The Ministry of Health said that Vietnam would register to buy every good vaccine in the world for the hope of the success of that vaccine in reality but Vietnam would only register for the purchase.

In addition to the Russian vaccine Sputnik V, the Ministry of Health has registered to buy Covid-19 vaccine from the UK.

Talking with VietNamNet, Mr. Vu Tuan Cuong, Director-General of the Drug Administration of the Ministry of Health also affirmed that Vietnam has not finalized the purchase of Russian vaccine.

Meanwhile, Vietnam will continue developing its own COVID-19 vaccines to be self-reliant in its distribution to the 90 million population.

Currently, Vietnam has four Covid-19 vaccine manufacturers, including: VABIOTECH, IVAC (Institute of Vaccines and Medical Biologicals), POLYVAC (Center for Vaccine and Medical Biological Production) in cooperation with the Central Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology and Nanogen Company.

The health ministry will send two vaccine candidates, slated to be available by the end of 2021, by POLYVAC and VABIOTECH, to be tested in the US after pre-clinical trials on animals yielded promising results.

With POLYVAC vaccine, if the results of the evaluation of toxicity on animals sent to the US is safe, this unit can conduct human trials (clinical trials) at the end of the year.

On August 11, President Vladimir Putin announced that this country’s Ministry of Health had licensed the Covid-19 vaccine called Sputnik V, a reference to the surprise 1957 launch of the world's first satellite by the Soviet Union. The vaccine is jointly developed by the Gamaleya National Research Centre and the Russian Ministry of Defense.

President Putin emphasized that the introduction of the Covid-19 vaccine was a very important step forward for the world.

Mr. Alexander Gintsburg, director of the Gamaleya National Research Centre, affirmed that the Russian Covid-19 vaccine can extend its protection period up to 2 years. According to preliminary information, the vaccine costs about US$10 per two doses.

However, many scientists around the world have warned that this is an incomplete vaccine because phase 3 has not been implemented. This is considered the most important in the testing process, which must last many months with thousands of samples. At the same time, the number of people participating in the phase 1 and 2 trial is too small compared to the regulations on clinical trials of vaccines.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), this organization is working with Russian health officials to see whether the vaccine meets the standards before being launched to the market or not.

The quality of the vaccine prior to widespread vaccination requires careful assessment, WHO added.

Thuy Hanh

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