Vietnam has granted the license for Pfizer/ BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine as the fourth vaccine on the list for the fight against the pandemic. Three other vaccines have approved are AstraZeneca, Sputnik V and Sinopharm.
Few days ago, the director of the Drug Administration of Vietnam, said that the Advisory Council for the issuance of drug registration certificates of the Ministry of Health had agreed to ask for the Ministry of Health’s urgent approval of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine, according the a report by VNExpress.
The Drug Administration of Vietnam has also asked related companies to prepare documents to submit to relevant agencies to ask for urgent licenses for other Covid-19 vaccines of Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and other brands.
On May 18, Vietnam signed an agreement to buy 31 million doses of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine. It is expected that this company will provide Vietnam with 31 million doses of the vaccine in the third and fourth quarters of this year.
Related: Vietnam gives 18 companies right to import Covid-19 vaccines. Here’s the list
The Covid-19 vaccine of Pfizer (USA) developed with its partner BioNTech (Germany), using mRNA technology, was the first Covid-19 vaccine approved for emergency use by the World Health Organization (WHO).
The manufacturer says the vaccine has up to 95% effective protection. Recent studies by the company and scientists show that the Pfizer vaccine is effective against the two variants of SARS-CoV-2, including the British and the South African strains, besides the old strain.
The Ministry of Health is negotiating with many vaccine providers in order to buy 150 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine in 2021 to immunize 75% of Vietnam’s population.
In addition to the 31 million doses of Pfizer, 38.9 million doses of Astrazeneca vaccine via COVAX, the Ministry of Health has also registered with COVAX to purchase more vaccines under a cost-sharing mechanism.
In November 2020, Vietnam signed a deal with Astrazeneca to purchase about 30 million more doses.
On June 2, Russia agreed to provide Vietnam with 20 million doses of Sputnik V vaccine in 2021. On June 4, Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long worked online with Johnson & Johnson, asking the company to supply Covid-19 vaccines to Vietnam, according to Vietnamnet.