Vietnam to Produce Five 5 Vaccines Domestically

Four Vietnamese companies are taking steps under a project to produce at least five vaccines, including the combined 5-in-1 and 6-in-1 vaccines, in order to be more proactive in ensuring sufficient supply of vaccines to meet local demand. This project is one of the national product programs run by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Do Tuan Dat, director of the Vaccine and Biological Production Company No. 1, said in a recent interview with Tuoi Tre newspaper. Under this project, at least five vaccines will be produced, consisting of a Vi-rEPA typhoid vaccine, a Japanese encephalitis virus vaccine made in Vero cells, a hepatitis A vaccine made in diploid cells, a 5-in-1 vaccine (against five diseases: polio, whooping cough, diphtheria, tetanus, and Haemophilus influenzae b (Hib)), and a 6-in-1 vaccine (for the preceding five diseases plus hepatitis B). Of these vaccines, the 5-in-1 and 6-in-1 are really desired by families having babies, Dat said, adding that the locally-made 5-in-1 and 6-in-1 vaccines will be tested in 2018. Currently, the country is facing a shortage of the two combined vaccines, said Tran Dac Phu, head of the health ministry’s Preventive Health Department. Vaccine makers have committed themselves to providing Vietnam with 530,000 doses of 5-in-1 and 6-in-1 this year, but the amount is enough for only 170,000 children, far lower than the actual demand, Phu said. Vietnam has so far produced 11 of the 12 vaccines used in its national vaccination program, with measles vaccines listed by the World Health Organization (WHO) among the vaccines meeting global standards. (Tuoi Tre – Youth Mar 9)