AstraZeneca delivered 592,100 additional doses of its COVID-19 vaccine for use in Vietnam on August 6th, 2021. The delivery is the seventh to Vietnam in total as part of the advance purchase agreement between AstraZeneca and Vietnam Vaccine JSC (VNVC), with support from the Ministry of Health.
Approximately 11.5 million doses of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine have been delivered into Vietnam, accounting for 62% of all vaccine supplies in the country.
Mr. Nitin Kapoor, Chairman and General Director, AstraZeneca Vietnam and Asia Area Frontier Markets said: “In the first week of August alone, almost 2.2 million doses of our vaccine have been supplied to Vietnam via the bilateral agreement with VNVC, COVAX Facility, and the UK Government’s donation. With the vaccination speed in Vietnam increasing steadily, tens of thousands more people are being protected from this virus with our vaccine every day. We will continue to partner with the Ministry of Health, World Health Organization, UNICEF and VNVC to deliver our jab to Vietnam as quickly as possible so that local communities can soon return to their normal life and reunite with their families.”
Dr. Bach Thi Chinh, Medical Director of VNVC Vaccination Center System said: “Every dose of COVID-19 vaccine that arrives in Vietnam is extremely valuable, especially amidst this nationwide disease outbreak. Most of the doctors and frontline health workers can now be somewhat reassured as they have been vaccinated with two doses. VNVC is proud that we were able to bring the first COVID-19 vaccine doses to Vietnam, via the advance purchase agreement (APA) with AstraZeneca for 30 million doses. VNVC is also directly participating in local vaccination campaigns, most of which are using AstraZeneca’s vaccines. This demonstrates the significance of the APA where we made a deposit even when the vaccine was still in clinical trials.”
Last week, AstraZeneca announced a milestone that 1 billion doses of their COVID-19 vaccine, developed in partnership with the University of Oxford, have been supplied at no profit to more than 170 countries across the world.
AstraZeneca’s commitment to support broad and equitable vaccine access worldwide also shines through their contributions to COVAX – being the first global pharma company to join this international vaccine sharing scheme in June 2020 and having delivered more than two-thirds of total COVAX supplies globally.
The supply of the vaccine is estimated to have helped save tens of thousands of lives and to have significantly reduced hospitalisations.1,3 The vaccine has also demonstrated a high level of protection against variants of concern against severe disease and hospitalisation,2,3 including being 92% effective against hospitalisation due to the Delta variant after two doses.4
Recent studies have concluded that the AstraZeneca vaccine has a comparable safety profile to the available mRNA vaccines with small and similar increases in rates of thrombotic and thrombocytopenia events, but importantly, these rates are much lower than after COVID-19 illness.5
AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine was the first to be authorised for and used in the Vietnamese Government’s national vaccination programme. Globally, the vaccine has been granted a conditional marketing authorisation or emergency use in more than 80 countries across six continents.
AstraZeneca
AstraZeneca (LSE/STO/Nasdaq: AZN) is a global, science-led biopharmaceutical company that focuses on the discovery, development, and commercialisation of prescription medicines in Oncology, Rare Diseases and BioPharmaceuticals, including Cardiovascular, Renal & Metabolism, and Respiratory & Immunology. Based in Cambridge, UK, AstraZeneca operates in over 100 countries and its innovative medicines are used by millions of patients worldwide. Please visit astrazeneca.com and follow the Company on Twitter @AstraZeneca.
References
- https://www.gov.uk/government/news/covid-19-vaccines-have-prevented-7-2-million-infections-and-27-000-deaths. Published 28 Jun 2021 Accessed 06 Aug 2021.
- Voysey M et al. Lancet. 2021;397:881-891. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)00432-3 (Accessed 19 Jun 2021).
- PHE Update Week 26: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-vaccine-surveillance-report. (Accessed 06 Aug 2021).
- Stow J. et al. Effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines against hospital admission with the Delta (B.1.617.2) variant. Pre-print from PHE UK: https://khub.net/web/phe-national/public-library/-/document_library/v2WsRK3ZlEig/view/479607266 [Last accessed 06 Aug 2021].
- Burn, E (2021) Thromboembolic events and thrombosis with thrombocytopenia after COVID-19 infection and vaccination in Catalonia, Spain. Pre-print Online: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3886421. (Accessed 06 Aug 2021).
Press release distributed by EloQ Communications