Level 3 represents a stable, well-functioning, and integrated regulatory system.

The ministry noted that the NRA assessment was conducted by using the Global Benchmarking Tool (GBT) of WHO to ensure the quality, safety, and effectiveness of vaccines.

Employees of the Company for Vaccine and Biological Production No 1 work on a COVID-19 vaccine candidate.

The NRA of Vietnam was recognised to be well-functioning under the GBT in April 2015.

In 2018, WHO sent a team of international experts to Vietnam to re-assess this system basing on the updated GBT, which requires greater efforts to further complete NRAs, even those already recognised in 2015.

In the latest assessment, the NRA of Vietnam obtained Maturity Level 3 in eight of the nine vaccine regulating functions. Efforts are still being made to improve its maturity in terms of pharmaceuticals and other medical products.

The Health Ministry noted that the Vietnamese NRA has been maintained and developed over the past years to meet domestic vaccine demand, creating a prerequisite for this system to become a prestigious authority and export domestically made vaccines.

Vietnam is now capable of manufacturing 11 vaccines against 11 diseases (tuberculosis, diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, hepatitis B, Japanese encephalitis, cholera, typhoid, measles, rubella, polio) for the national expanded immunisation programme, along with many other vaccines such as seasonal influenza, H5N1 and rotavirus.

The country also has four developers of Covid-19 vaccines, and two of them are conducting clinical trials so as to debut their vaccines in 2021.

Vietnam to soon produce Covid-19 vaccine

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Deputy PM Dam receives 2nd shot in Vietnam Covid vaccine trials

Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam, head of Vietnam's coronavirus task force, received the second shot of Vietnamese Covid-19 vaccine Nanocovax as part of its human trials on Friday.

Vietnam to receive first batch of vaccine under Covax next month

Over 811,000 doses of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine will be delivered to Hanoi next month, a UNICEF official said Wednesday.

EU may consider transferring vaccine technology to Vietnam: ambassador

The EU may consider transferring vaccine manufacturing technology to Vietnam, its envoy to Hanoi has said.

Russia’s Covid-19 vaccine authorised for emergency use

The Health Ministry (MoH) on March 23 approved with conditions Russia’s Covid-19 vaccine named Gam-Covid-Vac, also known as Sputnik V, for emergency use in Covid-19 prevention and control in the country.

Source: NDO