Military Hospital 103 of the Vietnam Military Medical Academy will start the first human clinical trials of locally developed COVID-19 vaccine in November 2020.

If the vaccine works and is safe following the clinical trials, it is expected to be
commercially marketed in mid-2022. (Illustrative photo by the Ministry of Health).

Lieutenant General Pham Hoai Nam, Deputy Minister of National Defence made the announcement at a press briefing at Military Hospital 103 in Hanoi on October 31.

However, Nam said for the safety reasons the hospital will evaluate the efficacy of the vaccine following its trials on monkeys before conducting the trial tests on human.

Vietnamese researchers of the Company for Vaccine and Biological Production No.1 (VABIOTECH) under the Ministry of Health have begun performing trials for the vaccine on 12 healthy macaca mulatta monkeys.

According to Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thu Van, former director of VABIOTECH, testing a COVID-19 vaccine on monkeys is just a step in the vaccine research process. Research units can choose to experiment on different animals such as mice, monkeys or rabbits.

This is a step forward for VABIOTECH, though it is still in the pre-clinical stage in laboratory, says Van.

She notes Vietnam is slow compared to the world in COVID-19 vaccine production, but the vaccine, after being licensed, will be used widely, clinical trials require great care. She points to the fact that the world has entered the clinical trial phase and problems have arisen in several countries.

“If laboratory results are good and satisfactory, we will have COVID-19 vaccine for use in mid-2022,” says Prof. Van.