Vietnam-based Nanogen joins the list of pharmaceutical companies with a viable COVID-19 vaccine.
The company recently announced a joint clinical trial with the Military Medical Academy set to last six months. Volunteer recruitment has started, and if everything goes as planned, mass vaccination can start in May 2021.
The Nanocovax vaccine was created as part of the national emergency response project from the Ministry of Health and the results from animal testing showed promising results.
Pricing on the vaccine has not been set, though the Ministry of Health will have a say in the final pricing. A Nanogen representative confirmed that each dose shouldn’t exceed 500,000 VND. Keep in mind that the vaccine requires two doses, similar to the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
This puts the vaccine on par with pricing from Pfizer (for two doses) at 876,900 VND and cheaper than Moderna’s vaccine at 1,338,428 VND. In most cases, the vaccine can be covered by insurance.
Who should get the vaccine?
People between the ages of 12 to 75 should get the vaccine. Nanocovax is given in two injections, 28 days apart for maximum protection. Similar to the flu vaccine, Nanocovax will have to be repeated on an annual basis to have an effect.
In terms of side effects, in animal trials, there was only mild irritation at the injection site and this disappeared after half an hour. When studying the mice, no damage to internal organs was found.
Currently, Nanogen can produce up to two million doses of the vaccine each year, but with upgraded capacity, it’s anticipated that Nanogen will be able to produce between 30 to 50 million doses once the clinical trials are finished. Aside from the raw materials, Nanogen researches and manufactures the vaccines themselves.
