Vietnam to Receive Licenses to Produce Vaccines for Export: WHO

The World Health Organization (WHO) office in Vietnam announced on June 21 that the country will soon receive the licenses to produce vaccines for export, the Thanh Nien newspaper reported on June 22. According to the WHO, Vietnam is the fifth country in western Pacific region and 37th nation worldwide to achieve the organization’s standards to develop vaccine. The organization will publicly recognize the achievement of Vietnam after the assessment of independent experts in April this year. The first assessment was done in 2001. Each year, 1.6 million children are born in Vietnam and 96% of them get fully vaccinated through the Expanded Program on Immunization while the rest get vaccinated via paid programs. Vietnam is striving to raise the localization rate of vaccine production, aiming to make 5-in-1 and 6-in-1 vaccines in 2018-2020 to meet the domestic demand amid continuing shortage of vaccines for these two programs nationwide. (Thanh Nien – Young People June 22 p2)