HCMC – The Advisory Council for the Registration of Circulation of Drugs and Medicinal Ingredients under the Ministry of Health has proposed the ministry approve the emergency use of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine.
Vu Tuan Cuong, head of the Drug Administration of Vietnam, under the Ministry of Health, on June 8 said the administration would work with the council to propose the ministry approve the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccines as well, the local media reported.
On May 20, the Ministry of Health signed a contract to buy the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine, and 31 million doses of the vaccine are expected to be supplied to Vietnam in two 15.5-million-dose shipments, with one in the third quarter and the other in the fourth quarter.
The BNT162b2 Covid-19 vaccine, developed by the United States’ drugmaker Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech, is the first Covid-19 vaccine approved for emergency use by the World Health Organization in 2020. To date, 103 countries have used the vaccine.
Experiments on people aged over 16 showed that the vaccine was 95% effective. On April 2, Pfizer announced the result of the final trial stage of the vaccine, saying that it was 95.3% effective.
It can protect vaccinated people against Covid-19 for at least six months after they get the second dose.
Vietnam has approved three Covid-19 vaccines for emergency use, including the United Kingdom’s AstraZeneca, Russia’s Sputnik V and China’s Vero Cell.
The country started its Covid-19 vaccination campaign on March 8 using the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine.
