Regarding building domestic Covid-19 vaccine production capacity.
My perspective is that we need to be extremely cautious with promoting Vietnam’s Covid-19 vaccine production capacity at this point in time. The biggest issues with domestic vaccine production right now are:
a) Side effects remain unknown as to what they will be like if not tested on a large scale of tens of thousands of people in an environment with many infection cases. At the same time, side effects may occur after a few years without anyone knowing; (And whichever gentleman/lady says “a vaccine that generates good antibodies means a good vaccine” is lying and immoral!)
b) Summaries and reports on efficacy and impact of the vaccine have not been published by reputable international peer-reviewed scientific journals. The scientific foundation and evaluation data have not been announced, so it is impossible to see where the actual results really stand.
Regarding this matter, if the Vietnamese government keeps allowing it, it will create an extremely dangerous precedent for scientific research and application in Vietnam: a lack of transparency and seriousness in scientific research.
Even those who moved fast, like vaccine manufacturers Oxford AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Moderna, and J&J all published and shared their trial results. One cannot trust what is not shared according to principles of publicity and re-testing.
An ineffective and harmful vaccine will create an anti-vaccine wave if anything happens: The cases of the Philippines and Japan are two bloody lessons in failing to manage vaccine quality, leading to these two countries having a fairly high anti-vaccine culture. This will have long-term consequences for decades, not just a few years.
Everyone hopes Vietnam can self-produce vaccines to grasp the initiative, but in an emergency situation like this, the best solution is to go buy vaccines that have been tested extremely strictly rather than hoping to develop domestic capacity right now. Either way, it is already too late to acquire vaccines, so ordering now is even faster than producing (because even when produced, capacity is not sufficient). The purchasing solution is the safest and not overly expensive (since 1/2 of the money is sponsored by enterprises, self-paid, and can already be commercialized).
As for a decision to invest in domestic production, besides the medical issues above, prior to investing, the Government needs to review and investigate these manufacturing enterprises independently and very thoroughly regarding their capacities: covering financial capacity, technological capacity, ethics, and business reputation of the enterprise leaders themselves:
- To evaluate finances and business reputation, one of the Big 4 major accounting firms can be hired;
- To evaluate technology, an independent technology evaluation team can be established comprising pharmaceutical technology experts in the above field;
- To evaluate the ethics and reputation of enterprise leaders, request security agencies or private firms to investigate independently and consult business partners working with that enterprise to know immediately. When these 03 questions can be answered clearly, then think about granting approval!
There is an English proverb that says: “Too good to be true.” It means “quá tốt để mà tin là thật” [too good to believe it is real]. Our state leaders can learn further about the story of Elizabeth Holmes, CEO cum co-founder of Theranos company. This company worked on blood testing, was once considered a darling in the health tech village, valued at billions of dollars, and went bankrupt due to fraud after burning through hundreds of millions of dollars of investors’ money.
If we truly want to produce, we can negotiate with Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, or Sputnik to purchase production lines/technology right here in Vietnam. There is no reason to hastily risk creating a domestic vaccine.
Approving emergency vaccine production will be a “politically suicidal” act for the highest leader if things occur regarding:
a) Efficacy and consequences of the vaccine;
b) Risks of production monopolies leading to group interests that even the highest leader does not know or control.
(The article consulted opinions of experts in medicine, pharmacy, and economics. Thank you to Mr. BTL for helping synthesize).
Nguyen Quoc Toan
