Vietnam begins production of Sputnik V vaccine
Vabiotech began mass production of Sputnik V on September 24, and then supplied it to the national vaccination program.
The information was announced by a representative of Vaccine and Biological Products Company No. 1 (Vabiotech) on the afternoon of September 24. Currently, the company has received a large quantity of semi-finished vaccine products from its Russian partner to begin production. The finished vaccine will be used in the vaccination program in Vietnam.
A representative of Vabiotech said that the production scale will be up to 5 million doses per month, expected to increase to 100 million doses per year and receive technology transfer to completely produce Sputnik V vaccine. The company has also built a factory to receive technology transfer to produce this vaccine.
In July, Vabiotech said it had successfully produced the first batch of about 30,000 doses of vaccine. The batch was then sent to the Gamaleya Institute in Russia for testing. On August 26, the Gamaleya Institute assessed that the batch of vaccine produced in Vietnam met the required quality standards.
According to a press release from Vabiotech on September 24, the Sputnik V vaccine is developed based on an adenovirus vector platform. This vaccine technology inserts a piece of the nCoV gene into an inactivated adenovirus to stimulate the response of immune cells. The vaccine has a course of 2 injections 3 weeks apart, stored at 2-8 degrees Celsius.
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| Vabiotech employees hold vials of Sputnik V vaccine in July. Photo: Vabiotech |
Announcing the results of Sputnik V clinical trials in The Lancet, the manufacturer said the vaccine was 91.6% effective. For volunteers over 60 years old, the protective effect was 91.8%. After vaccination, 98% of volunteers had antibodies against nCoV. The updated results later said the vaccine was 97.6% effective.
In Vietnam, Sputnik V was licensed by the Ministry of Health on March 23 and began trial production at the end of July.