• Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam gets trial jabs of Vietnamese-made COVID-19 vaccine today.

• Nano Covax, developed by HCM City-based biopharmaceutical company Nanogen, was the first vaccine made by Vietnamese scientists to enter clinical trials.

• Visit Vietnam Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam and Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Pham Cong Tac on Friday receives the jabs of Vietnam’s own COVID-19 vaccine, Nano Covax, as part of the second phase of human trials.

Dam, 58, is the head of Vietnam’s National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control, and Tac a science official. They both underwent a medical check-ups before receiving the shot at the Vietnam Military Medical University in Hanoi

Related: Vietnam reports two illegal entrants infected with Covid-19

After the inoculations, Dam and Tac remained at the injection room for follow-up observation for 30 minutes, before he visited and thanked volunteers who were at the university for the second jab in the trials during March 25-April 6, as well as giving words of encouragement to the vaccine developers.

The volunteers were given the first jab between February 26 and March 9.

Nano Covax, developed by HCM City-based biopharmaceutical company Nanogen, was the first vaccine made by Vietnamese scientists to enter clinical trials.

Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam receives Nano Covax, Vietnam’s own COVID-19 vaccine, on Friday as part of the vaccine’s second phase human trials @ VNExpress

Professor Đỗ Quyết, Director of Military Medical University, said the results of the first phase trial showed Nano Covax is safe and enabling the body to generate antibodies that can neutralise coronavirus, including the highly contagious variant first reported in the UK (B117), Vietnam News Agency reported

The second phase involves a larger number of volunteers (560 people between 18-60 years old including people with some mild or early-stage chronic conditions) and the focus shifts to the effectiveness and immunogenicity of the vaccine, according to Quyết.

The volunteers are divided into four groups, 80 are injected with a placebo, and the rest are given different doses – 25mcg, 50mcg, and 75mcg to test dosage level.

After the end of the trials, the people given the placebo will be injected with the real vaccines.

With the current progress, by the end of June-early July this year, scientists can propose to the national committee for ethics in biomedical research to allow commence of phase 3 trials and greenlight experimental injections on a wider scale, he continued.

According to the expert, WHO noted that the vaccine should be evaluated on whether it could provide protection for the people in an environment with community infections.

In the phase 3 trials, scientists will need to test the vaccine on 10,000 people – 5,000 people to receive Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines, and 5,000 to receive Nano Covax shots – to compare the two vaccines’ side effects, immunogenicity and the ability to fight the virus, according to Vietnam News.

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