HCMC – Vietnamese pharmaceutical company VABIOTECH, under the Ministry of Health, announced on September 24 that it has managed to produce the first batch of Russia’s Sputnik V Covid vaccine.

With semi-finished products provided by the Russian side, the vaccine batch was manufactured in Vietnam on August 26, reported the local media. Do Tuan Dat, president of VABIOTECH, said the vaccine batch had been sent to Russia for analysis and assessment, while the Russian side said the batch met its standards. The batch of the vaccine is expected to help local people access a new Covid vaccine and contribute to slowing the spread of the coronavirus, the VABIOTECH leader added. The Sputnik V vaccine produced by VABIOTECH is set to be used in the country's National Expanded Program for Immunization. VABIOTECH can churn out five million doses of the vaccine per month. Sputnik V has been developed based on a proven and well-studied platform of human adenoviral vectors and employs two different vectors for the two shots in a course of vaccination. The interval between the first and the second shot is three weeks. The Sputnik V vaccine is reportedly 91.6% effective against the coronavirus. It was given conditional authorization in Vietnam on March 23. On July 21, VABIOTECH produced the first test batch of this Russian vaccine. Sputnik V can be stored at standard refrigerator temperatures of 2-8 degrees Celsius, without the need for ultra cold chain storage.