Medicine:Covivac (Vietnam COVID-19 vaccine)

Short description: Vaccine candidate against COVID-19

Covivac

Vaccine description
Target disease	SARS-CoV-2
Type	viral
Clinical data
Routes of administration	Intramuscular

Covivac is a COVID-19 vaccine candidate developed by Institute of Vaccines and Medical Biologicals in Vietnam.

Description

Covivac is a viral vector (non-replicating), egg-based, inactivated vaccine (whole chimeric Newcastle Disease Virus (NDV) expressing membrane-anchored pre-fusion-stabilized trimeric SARS-CoV-2 S protein (Hexapro) + CpG 1018). The vaccine requires two doses, the second one being administered 28 days after the first shot.

Clinical trials

Phase I

On 21 January, the second Vietnam produced COVID-19 vaccine (Covivac) by Institute of Vaccine and Medical Biologicals (IVAC) has entered a human-clinical trial, nearly two months ahead of schedule. Covivac vaccine has been studied by IVAC since May 2020, has carried out pre-clinical trials in India, US and Vietnam, the results show safety and efficacy in experiment, fully meeting the conditions for conducting research with humans participants. The vaccine stability evaluation was conducted at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York City. Phase 1 recruited 120 healthy Vietnamese adult volunteers, aged 18–59. On 15 March 2021, six volunteers were injected with the Covivac vaccine, at the Hà Nội Medical University. All 120 volunteers received the first dose, six of them received the second dose. Phase I will be completed on 15/5. The research team recorded side effects from the volunteer's health, such as pain, fever, redness, headache, fatigue, muscle aches, and nausea. After 14 days infected second doses, the group of volunteers continued to get blood samples to test for antibodies.

Phase II

Phase two clinical trials may start in June 2021 in Vu Thu district, Thai Binh province.