The Ministry of Health and the National Council of Ethics in Biomedical Research on June 25 agreed with the Pasteur Institute in Ho Chi Minh City and the Military Medical University to speed up the third-phase clinical trial of the homegrown COVID-19 vaccine Nano Covax on all the 13,000 volunteers.
The agreement was made during a Hanoi meeting of the council to update the progress. Accordingly, all the volunteers are expected to have received the first jab by July 15 and the second shot by August 15. Data on the result of the third-phase trial will be gathered within August.
According to the council, the vaccine, which is developed by Vietnamese Nanogen Pharmaceutical Biotechnology JSC, has a high level of safety and antibody production in this stage. However, it is necessary to have more time and number of samples as well as lab evaluation to access the effectiveness of the vaccine.
As scheduled, the results in the second-phase trial of the vaccine will complete in February 2022. However, after the Ministry of Health approved the implementation of the third phase, Nano Covax shots have been injected into the volunteers.
As of June 24, the 1,007 volunteers had been administrated with the first jab.
Members of the council stressed the need to ensure safety of the trial while hastening its progress.
