Viet Nam buys five million doses of Cuba's Abdala vaccine as an agreement to this effect was inked on September 20 under the witness of President Nguyen Xuan Phuc during his official visit to Cuba. 

Deputy Minister of Health Tran Van Thuan (L) and representative of the Cuban Center for
Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB) sign an agreement on purchasing five
million doses of Cuba's Abdala vaccine, Havana, Cuba, September 20, 2021
- Photo: Vietnamnet.vn 

The Center for Research and Production of Vaccines and Biologicals (POLYVAC), under the Vietnamese Ministry of Health and the Cuban Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB) signed the agreement. 

The State leader also witnessed the signing of a contract on transfer of of Soberana 2 vaccine production technology (a COVID-19 vaccine for children) between the two sides’ enterprises. 

Speaking at the event, Nguyen expressed his delight on the crucial event, regarding it as an important success of his visit to Cuba. 

Also at the event, Deputy Minister of Health Tran Van Thuan asked the Cuban side to early send related documents for Viet Nam so it would approve for emergency use of the Soberana 2 vaccine.

He said that the two nations’ health ministries discussed eight cooperative contents during the 2021-2026 period, focusing on research, training and technology transfer, expressing his hope that the cooperation will lift the bilateral relations in health sector to a higher level. 

The same day, the Government issued Resolution No. 109/NQ-CP on purchase of 10 million doses of Abdala COVID-19 vaccine developed by the Cuban Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology.

The Ministry of Health is responsible for the purchase of the vaccine.

Abdala becomes the eighth foreign COVID-19 vaccine approved for emergency use in Viet Nam aside from the U.K.’s AstraZeneca, the U.S.’s Johnson & Johnson, Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech, Russia’s Sputnik V, China’s Sinopharm and the UAE’s Hayat-Vax.

As of late September 20, Viet Nam administered 34,553,590 COVID-19 vaccine doses, with 6,640,061 people having been fully vaccinated./.