HANOI, March 16 (Vietnam Niews/ANN): A second Vietnamese Covid-19 vaccine entered the first phase of clinical trials, the Ministry of Health has annunced.
Six volunteers were injected with the Covivac vaccine, researched and produced by the Institute of Vaccines and Medical Biologicals (IVAC), at the HanoiMedical University.
Duong Huu Thai, director of the IVAC, said the research project for the Covivac vaccine under the Ministry of Health began in May last year on the basis of co-operation with universities, research institutes and international production organisations.
Phase one will be implemented at the Hanoi Medical University, with 120 healthy volunteers aged 18-59 participating. Volunteers in the study will receive two injections 28 days apart.
After the first injection, the volunteers will be medically monitored for 24 hours at the Centre for Clinical Pharmacology at the Hanoi Medical University.
After the second injection, the volunteers will be monitored for four hours.
Phase two will be conducted at the Vu Thu District Medical Centre in the northern province of Thai Bình.
Volunteers participating in the study at this stage will include 300 healthy people, aged 18-75, of which those age 60-75 will account for about one third.
Forty-three days after phase one, if results are good, the optimal dose level will move to phase two research.
The Covivac vaccine is a liquid vaccine with or without adjuvants, without preservatives, with the production technology of Newcastle vector vaccine, based on production technology on chicken eggs with embryos.
This technology is also used to produce seasonal flu vaccines in Vietnam.
Director Thai said preclinical studies in India, the US and Việt Nam so far had shown safety and effectiveness.
The Covivac vaccine antibody also protects against a variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus from the UK and South Africa. - Vietnam News/ANN
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