Developed by Ho Chi Minh City-based Nanogen Pharmaceutical Biotechnology Company, the vaccine already underwent animal trials and was assessed by a Vietnamese and foreign agency. One week after December 10, volunteers will be injected in vaccine trial for the first phase.

Speaking at a meeting recently, Health Minister Professor Nguyen Thanh Long said that vaccine developers were asked to speed up development of vaccines for clinical trial.

Noticeably, the Nanogen Pharmaceutical Biotechnology Company and the Military Medical Academy will recruit volunteers to take part in the first testing phase for the Covid-19 vaccine. Simultaneously, related sides should prepare for the second testing phase instead of waiting till the end of the first phase, said Health Minister Long.

The Ministry will facilitate Covid-19 vaccine development including simplifying administrative procedures and quick registration of the vaccine. Relevant agencies will help vaccine developers access to capital sources for further research of vaccine.

The Ministry said that currently, Vietnam has four research institutions working on Covid-19 vaccines including Vabiotech, Vietnam's Center for Research and Production of Vaccines and Biology (Polyvac), the Institute of Vaccines and Medical Biologicals (Ivac), and Nanogen Pharmaceutical Biotechnology.

The preclinical research has positive results. Safe and effective vaccines will be essential to meet the local need for widespread protection against Covid-19. IVAC, VABIOTECH, NANOGEN have finished large production procedures in laboratory and they are assessing the vaccine’s safety and immunity on animals. NANOGEN completed testing on animal and move forward to the first phase of testing on human.

The vaccine will go through a two-stage human trial process before they are sent to regulatory agencies for approval. The first phase trial on human will be conducted in the Military Medical Academy. As per schedule, the Vietnamese-made Covid-19 vaccine will be injected on 60 volunteers in different phases.

It is planned that 20 volunteers will take part in the first phase and 40 people will participate in the second phase. The second phase will be three months after the first one.

For volunteers’ safety, only one or two volunteers out of 60 people recruited for the first human trial will be injected. After 72 hours, the vaccine will be injected into the remaining ones if the first ones are safe.