HCM City negotiates to buy five million doses of Moderna vaccines

The committee has assigned the Saigon Pharmaceutical Company Limited (Sapharco) and VinaCapital to conduct negotiations with Zuellig Pharma.

Currently, Sapharco has signed a document with basic terms and is now waiting for Moderna to hand over the draft contract and provisions regarding contract content confidentiality to Vietnamese partners in order to launch an official negotiation.

Providing that the contract is signed, five million doses of the Moderna vaccine will be transported to the nation during the fourth quarter of the year, or in the first quarter of next year.

Vinacapital and Sapraco are therefore continuing to negotiate with Moderna and Zuellig Pharma as a means of providing at least two million doses in October and at least 10 million additional doses ahead in the second quarter of 2022.

The committee also requested permission from the Minister of Health to permit VinaCapital to implement public-private co-operation and issue detailed instructions relating to vaccinating people and paying for fees, in addition to regulations on vaccination service prices.

The committee put forward the suggestion that the Ministry of Health review other localities' Moderna vaccine demand to increase orders and speed up vaccine transfer and price reduction.

Furthermore, the Ministry of Health announced on August 11 that a batch of one million doses of Vero Cell vaccines which arrived in Ho Chi Minh City on July 31 passed quality-control checks. They have therefore been granted certificates by the National Institute for Control of Vaccine and Biologicals.

This marked the first batch out of five million doses of Vero Cell that Sapharco negotiated with Sinopharm.

Vietnam originally granted approval for the emergency use of the vaccine on June 4.