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According to Vu Dinh Thiem, Director of the Center for Clinical Trials under the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, only a few cases showed mild post-injection symptoms within 30 minutes to 60 minutes of the injection, such as a headache or muscle pain around the injection site, VOV reported.

The volunteers will self-monitor their health and note their medical records before returning to the hospital on March 22 for samples to be taken.

One hundred twenty volunteers, aged 18-59 and all Vietnamese, are set to participate in the first phase of trials for Covivac.

It will see 20 of the 120 get a placebo while the rest will get shots of varying doses: 1 mcg, 3 mcg, and 10 mcg.

A volunteer is given the Covivac vaccine shot. Photo: VOV

The other 114 volunteers will get them at upcoming sessions, with 12-18 getting shots each time. The sessions will be spaced eight days apart and go on until April 20.

All will get two jabs, 28 days apart, and they will receive health checks eight days after the injections, with researchers monitoring them over the phone and doing further checks throughout the trials to evaluate the vaccine’s immunogenicity.

A mid-term report of the first phase is expected to be completed in July, according to Vnexpress.

Once developed, Covivac will be a liquid vaccine with or without adjuvants, without preservatives, and making use of production technology of the Newcastle vector vaccine which is based on production technology that uses chicken eggs with embryos. This technology is also used in order to produce seasonal flu vaccines in Vietnam.

Nguyen Ngo Quang, deputy head of the Ministry of Health’s Administration of Science Technology and Training, said the total insurance cover for the volunteers is around VND40 billion ($1.7 million).

A researcher (L) informs a volunteer about the Covivac vaccine trials at the Hanoi Medical University. Photo: VnExpress.

Through pre-clinical assessments conducted in India, the U.S, and Vietnam, the Covivac vaccine has recorded a strong immunological effect on laboratory animals and has so far proved to be safe.

According to Dr. Duong Huu Thai, Director of the Institute of Vaccines and Medical Biologicals (IVAC), the research project on the vaccine has been running since May 2020, with the co-operation of scientists from universities, research institutes, and international organizations, adding that it has been produced from embryonic egg production technology, which is safe for animals.

The Covivac vaccine was also proved to be effective against the new SARS-CoV strain detected in both the UK and South Africa, Dr. Thai said.

The IVAC plans to offer the Covivac vaccine at a price of VND 60,000 (USD 2.6) per dose.

Meanwhile, the first locally-produced COVID-19 vaccine, Nanocovax, made by Nanogen Pharmaceutical Biotechnology JSC, entered its second phase of human trials on February 26.

Results of the trial will be announced in May 2021 before preparing for the third-stage trial during which only one single shot of the vaccine will be administered to 10,000-15,000 people from both domestic and foreign pandemic-hit regions, said Lieutenant-General Do Quyet, Director of the Military Medical University.

Vietnam has two other COVID-19 candidate vaccines being developed, which are VABIOTECH by the Company for Vaccine and Biological Production No 1, and POLYVAC by the Centre for Research and Production of Vaccines and Biologicals.

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