Vietnam grants conditional approval for COVID-19 Vaccine Moderna. (Photo: AFP/VNA)
Under the approval decision, the vaccine, also known as Spikevax, comes in doses of 0.5ml of mRNA molecules protected by lipid nanoparticles SM-102. It is supplied in a carton of 10 multiple-dose vials, with each vial containing 10 doses.

Zuellig Pharma Vietnam Co. Ltd. is in charge of importing and distributing the vaccine in Vietnam. It must ensure safe delivery of Moderna vaccine in the country, and cooperate with Vietnamese authorities to check the quality of the vaccine before use and instruct vaccination centres on how to store, distribute and administer the vaccine.

This is the fifth vaccine conditionally authorised for emergency use by the Ministry of Health, following Oxford/AstraZeneca, Sputnik V, Sinopharm’s Vero-Cell and Pfizer/BioNTech.

The country aims to purchase around 150 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to inoculate about 70 percent of its population this year. Close to 3.5 million doses have been administered in the country as of June 28 morning. The number of fully vaccinated people totalled 172,944.