(Illustrative image by VGP)

At Friday’s meeting of the National Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control in Hanoi, the Ministry of Health said the Ethics Council allows phase 2 trial to begin as soon as next week with 560 volunteers participating.

The trial will be conducted in Hanoi by the Military Medical Academy and in Long An province by the Pasteur Institute of Ho Chi Minh City. By May, if the phase 2 test results are good, phase 3 will continue. If it goes well, the total testing time will be shortened and ready for production by the end of this year.

Another domestic Covid-19 vaccine, Covivax of IVAC Company, will begin phase 1 human trial injection this month.

The third domestic vaccine of VABIOTECH Company will be tested for the first time on humans on March 1.

Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long underscored the importance of domestic vaccine production, saying, “Vaccine manufacturers around the world have announced the 6-month to 1-year protection period because of the lack of follow-up time. According to general scientific evaluation, due to the short-term protection effect,  we should be proactive in producing vaccines domestically for 2021 and the following years. For example, the annual flu vaccine must also change because each year a different influenza virus strain emerges.”