The Military Medical Academy have come together with Nanogen Pharmaceutical Biotechnology JSC to recruit volunteers who can participate in human trials of a Vietnamese-made novel coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine named Nanocovax, with the first stage of clinical tests taking place on December 10. 

According to Minister of Health Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thanh Long,  in the previous research, Nanocovax has undergone all necessary safety tests, with positive results being collected after conducting trials on monkey and mice.

Following this, the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology announced on December 7 the test results of Nanocovax, with a vaccinated hamster being exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 virus for a 14-day period but not becoming infected with the virus and remaining negative.

This led to the National Ethical Council for Biomedical Research convening a meeting on December 9 in order to evaluate the research documents from the first and second clinical trial phases for local COVID-19 vaccine Nanocovax.

The Military Medical Academy is therefore anticipated to launch the next stage of the clinical trial programme for the COVID-19 vaccine on December 10, whilst also announcing the recruitment of volunteers to participate in future research activities.

The first vaccine shot is set to be given to volunteers who are eligible to participate in the first phase of research on December 17.

To ensure the safety of the volunteers during the trials, the first three people will be injected with a 25 microrgram (mcg) dose of the trial vaccine, with their health conditions being assessed following a period of 72 hours.

The next dose of the experimental vaccine, along with the number of participants in the scheme, will be decided after the results of the first dose given to the three people have been reported.  The experimental period for each participant in the programme will be approximately 56 days.

Nanogen initially started their COVID-19 vaccine project in January. Immediately after being licensed by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Nanogen moved to invest a sum of roughly VND200 billion to build three factories, whilst also purchasing all necessary materials for research activities.