Việt Nam Vaccine Company (VNVC)'s cold storage for vaccines. — Photo courtesy of VNVC

HÀ NỘI — A further 921,000 doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, part of the purchase of 30 million doses from the company in 2021, arrived at Tân Sơn Nhất International Airport in HCM City on Thursday morning.

This is the fourth – and also the biggest shipment – from the deal AstraZeneca signed with the private company Việt Nam Vaccine Company (VNVC) in December last year, which has agreed to sell their entire supply of this year to the Vietnamese health ministry on a not-for-profit basis.

The vaccine doses are administered for free.

To date, 1.9 million doses in the contracted amount have arrived in Việt Nam.

Nearly 6.4 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccines – from VNVC, COVAX or as aid from the Japanese Government – make up 71 per cent of the available stockpile in Việt Nam.

Nitin Kapoor, Chairman and General Director of AstraZeneca Việt Nam, said the company would continue to cooperate with the health ministry, WHO, UNICEF and VNVC to accelerate the vaccine delivery to Việt Nam in the safest way possible, to help tame the fourth wave of infections and return normal life to local communities soon.

AstraZeneca was the first vaccine to have obtained authorisation for emergency use in Việt Nam.

The two latest shipments to Việt Nam – including a delivery of 580,000 on July 9 – marks an increased supply capacity of AstraZeneca for the Asia-Pacific with seven new manufacturing plants in the region.

AstraZeneca said on multiple occasions that for the foreseeable future they would have deals with central governments, not private entities, however, VNVC had invested some US$30 million into the development of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine when it was still in phase 2 of human trials last year, entitling the Vietnamese vaccine company to get advance orders.  — VNS