Vietnam’s Ministry of Health has allowed a domestic company to import 30 million doses of Hayat-Vax, a Chinese Covid-19 vaccine packaged in the UAE.
| Hayat-Vax Covid-19 vaccine. Photo: Vimedimex |
Hanoi-based Vimedimex Medi – Pharma JSC needs to take responsibility for the origin and quality of the vaccine safely and effectively as it pledged to.
The doses are scheduled to arrive in Vietnam at the end of the next week.
On Sept 10, the health ministry approved Hayat-Vax for emergency use, making it the 7th vaccine to be endorsed in the country after AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Moderna, Sputnik V, and Vero Cell.
Hayat-Vax, which will be imported to Vietnam, is produced by the Beijing Institute of Biological Products Co., Ltd. (BIBP), China. The semi-product is packaged by the UAE-based Julphar (Gulf Pharmaceutical Industries).
The vaccine is the first indigenous Covid-19 vaccine in the Arab world that is manufactured by a newly created joint venture between Sinopharm China National Pharmaceutical Group Co., Ltd. (CNBG) and G42, the leading technology company based in Abu Dhabi.
In 2020, Sinopharm CNBG and G42 collaborated on conducting 4Humanity, the world’s first phase III clinical trial of inactivated vaccines across the Pan Arab region, with over 43,000 volunteers participating from over 125 countries, according to the Precision Vaccinations.
Based on initial results, Hayat-Vax is 78.89% effective against Covid-19 after the two doses taken three weeks (+7 days) apart, according to Assoc. Prof. Trinh Van Lau, former head of Vietnam’s National Institute of Drug Quality Control.
According to him, this vaccine will be checked six times before it will be used in Vietnam. The testing was firstly taken by Sinopharm or the World Health Organization (WHO) before it was transported to the UAE; the UAE’s health ministry tested and recognized it “meets technical standards”; for the 3rd time, Gulf Pharmaceutical Industries in the UAE performed a single check on the quality before dosing and packing into vials; then the UAE health ministry approves each batch for export, before shipping to Vietnam.
Once it arrives in Vietnam, the local authorities will check and test the quality before vaccination.
As of Sept 21, Vietnam has administered over 35.15 million vaccine doses, fully vaccinating more than six million people or around 7% of the country’s total population.
