Bottles of the Nano Covax Covid-19 vaccine. An official of the Ministry of Health said the proposal for the approval for the vaccine is early and hasty - PHOTO: TNO

HCMC – Nanogen Pharmaceutical Biotechnology JSC’s proposal for approval of the emergency use of its Covid-19 vaccine, Nano Covax, seems early and hasty due to a lack of scientific foundation, said Nguyen Ngo Quang, deputy head of the Administration of Science, Technology and Training under the Ministry of Health.

He said he completely supported the research and development of locally-made Covid-19 vaccines, the local media reported.

In addition, licensed vaccines must be safe and effectively produce an immune response. Nano Covax was proved to be safe and produce a strong immune response but that is not enough.

Nanogen stated that the vaccine’s immunogenicity reached 99.4%, higher than some Covid-19 vaccines in the world. However, it is unknown if it helps reduce the possibility of being infected with Covid-19 and protects vaccinated people from getting worse if they are infected.

Moreover, the second phase of its human trial was conducted on a small number of volunteers. The third phase has been conducted on 1,000 first volunteers, much lower than the plan of 13,000 people.

After the second shot of the vaccine, the competent agencies must monitor vaccinated people for 36, 45 and 56 days to assess the vaccine’s effectiveness and production of the immune response.

Therefore, it is hard for the Ministry of Health to approve Nanogen’s proposal.