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Successful landmark

Vietnam now has four factories producing vaccines, producing 12 types of vaccines for tuberculosis, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, measles, polio, hepatitis B, hepatitis A, Japanese B encephalitis, cholera, typhoid, and diarrhea caused by Rota viruses.

The domestic vaccines gradually implemented its great mission. In addition, Vietnam has won recognition from the World Health Organization (WHO) as having a fully-equipped national regulatory system that ensures the safety and efficacy of vaccines produced and used domestically, thanks to which it can possibly become a vaccine supplier for the United Nations.

According to the Deputy Minister of Health, Nguyen Thanh Long, as the quality of vaccines produced in Vietnam has been confirmed, the door is now open for export of made-in-Vietnam vaccines. According to Nguyen Dang Hien, Director of the Ministry of Health's Centre for Research and Production of Vaccines and Biology (POLYVAC), the POLYVAC has successfully produced a combined vaccine against measles and rubella (MR) that signifies an important landmark in Vietnam’s vaccine manufacturing industry. The centre will accelerate the circulation process to provide this vaccine to the national expanded immunization programme targeting Vietnamese children by 2017.

With the result, Vietnam is one of 25 countries in the world that can produce its vaccines and the fourth country in Asia which can manufacture the MR vaccine, alongside Japan, India and China.

Remaining difficulties

Beside the successes, currently, the study of the ‘5 in 1’ or ‘6 in 1’ vaccine is considered the most difficult challenge for the medical sector. For this reason, general vaccination supplies relied on importing vaccines. As per the Ministry of Health, in 2015, 5-in-1 serviced vaccine is just satisfied 10 percent of orders subsequently leading to a severe shortage. Accordingly, the Ministry advised parents to use free vaccines in the National Expanded Immunization Program for their children instead of 5-in-1 Quinvaxem vaccine. Nevertheless, many serious post-vaccinations caused concern amongst parents. Many mothers refused free vaccines that were supplied under the national immunisation programme. They delayed vaccination of their children to wait for imported vaccines. The delaying vaccination or failing to follow the recommended national immunisation schedule is considered as a main cause of an outbreak of diphtheria and whooping cough diseases from middle of 2015 to the early 2016, according to Pham Ngoc Dinh, a professional from National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology.

According to Do Tuan Dat, Director of the Company for Vaccine and Biological Production No.1 (VABIOTECH), Vietnamese vaccines have been exported and earned millions of dollars. In recent years, the VABIOTECH has exported over 3 million doses of Japanese B encephalitis vaccine to India. Japanese encephalitis vaccines are also penetrating the market of East Timor. In addition, 32,000 doses of hepatitis A vaccine have been exported to the Republic of Korea and 115,000 doses of oral cholera vaccine to Sri Lanka, the Philippines, and India. However, the results do not fully reflect the potential and opportunities for the export of domestic vaccine products as the export is still small scale without a high commercial value.

Towards ‘made-in-Vietnam’ vaccines

To transform scientific achievements in the field of vaccines into high value commodities, meeting the requirements of the domestic market and for exports, the MoH has recommended considering vaccines as key national production and has been approved by the government. Accordingly, by 2020, the country will produce and commercialise at least seven important vaccines for disease prevention, meeting requirements for the domestic EPI, replacing the imported vaccines, and advancing to export vaccines to countries in the region and around the world.

According to Deputy Minister Long, by 2017, Vietnam will be able to confidently use its own measles-rubella vaccine produced domestically. Currently, the study of the ‘6 in 1’ vaccine is considered the most difficult challenge for the medical sector. The MoH has assigned the work to three agencies, each will develop one or two vaccines, after which they will combine them into synthetic vaccines. "We hope that by 2017 or 2018 we will have a made-in-Vietnam ‘6 in 1’ vaccine and by 2020 the commercial product will be put on the market," Deputy Minister Long said.

He also affirmed that the domestic vaccine's quality is absolutely guaranteed as Vietnam has been recognised internationally with the WHO’s NRA certification.