Nation reaches agreement on tech transfer of COVID-19 vaccine with Russia, US

The Vietnamese Government has reached agreements relating to the transfer of technology for COVID-19 vaccines from Russia and the United States, according to Reuters.

The Southeast Asian country is currently keen to boost its vaccine capacity, with the World Health Organization stating in May that it was in the process of reviewing a proposal made by an unidentified Vietnamese manufacturer to become an mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine technology hub.

The Ministry of Health has also been in talks with Russia in order to produce the Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine, according to reports in the media.

The nation is also expected to receive 20 million more doses of the mRNA shot co-developed by U.S. company Pfizer and Germany's BioNTech, thereby raising the total to 51 million doses.

This comes after the Minister of Health issued a decision in May aimed at establishing a steering committee for the research programme on technology transfer and production of COVID-19 vaccines.

Previously in June, No. 1 Vaccine and Biological Products Company Limited (VABIOTECH) signed an agreement with the Russian Direct Investment Fund regarding the production of vaccine tubes of Sputnik V from semi-finished products, with a scale of five million doses per month.

Moving ahead to July, the company will advance to the transfer of production technology with the scale of 100 million doses annually.

VABIOTECH is also in the process of negotiating with a Japanese partner in order to receive the transfer of vaccine production technology in the near future.