Vietnam to produce Cuban Covid vaccine

The Abdala vaccine produced by Cuba has passed all three phases of human trials, with the third involving around 48,000 people aged 19-80. However, the vaccine has yet to undergo clinical trials in any other country, Cuban Minister of Public Health Jose Angel Portal Miranda said Wednesday.

Initial trial results showed the vaccine is effective against certain coronavirus variants (Beta and Gamma), safe to use and immunogenic. The vaccine requires three shots, spaced 14 days apart. It could be stored between 2-8 degrees Celsius.

Cuba could produce around 100 million Abdala vaccine doses a year, of which only 30 million doses would be reserved for domestic use. As such, Cuba is willing to cooperate with Vietnam on vaccine supply and tech transfer to produce it, said Miranda, adding it could even open two production facilities in Vietnam in case of high demand.

Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long supported the decision, adding the ministry would report to higher authorities to decide on how many doses Vietnam would purchase.

Vietnam is also producing four domestic Covid-19 vaccines: Nanocovax by Nanogen, Covivac by IVAC, and two others by the Vaccine and Biological Production Company No. 1 (Vabiotech) and the Center for Research and Production of Vaccines and Biologicals.

Nanocovax has entered its third phase of human trials, being tested on 13,000 volunteers and expected to last until the end of September.

Besides its domestic vaccine sources, Vietnam is also seeking foreign Covid-19 vaccines either through contracts or global vaccine access mechanism Covax. The country has inoculated over 1.5 million people since March using a Covid-19 vaccine produced by AstraZeneca, mainly prioritized for frontline Covid-19 fighters.

Vietnam is looking to secure 150 million doses to cover 70 percent of its population.