The program aims to promote emergency measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19 pandemic, as well as provide information to support early warning system, thus protecting public health.
Three organizations receiving funding from Vingroup Innovation Foundation VINIF are The Company for Vaccine and Biological Production No.1 (Vabiotech), National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology and The Institute of Preventive Medicine and Public Health.
In particular, The Company for Vaccine and Biological Production No.1 (Vabiotech) received VND 8 billion for the research project entitled “Developing vaccines against new strain of coronavirus (COVID-19) on baculovirus system at laboratory scale”. The project is managed by Dr. Do Tuan Dat, the company’s president.
The National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology received nearly VND 7.5 billion in funding for the project “Research on epidemiological characteristics and acute respiratory infections caused by new strain of coronavirus 2019 (2019-nCoV) in Vietnam”. The project manager was Assoc.Prof.Dr. Phan Trong Lan. The Director of the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology. Prof. Dang Duc Anh worked as the vice project manager.
The Institute of Preventive Medicine and Public Health received a VND 4 billion grant for the project “Developing the national early warning system to assess the risk of COVID-19 pandemic infection and make an emergency response plan”. The project manager was Prof.Dr Le Thi Huong.
To receive funding, all projects had undergone a full range of selection processes from profile preparation and review to board meetings and decision-making from the Scientific Council (including domestic and foreign leading scientists in the fields of biotechnology, preventive medicine, epidemiological hygiene and treatment of infectious diseases).
Dr.Do Tuan Dat (Chairman of The Company for Vaccine and Biological Production No.1 (Vabiotech), Head of Covid-19 vaccine research team) shared: “The support from Vingroup is really significant for our research team as well as Vietnamese scientific community in the current critical time. We were very surprised at the effort of VinIF Executive Board.
In less than 10 days, both the Foundation and the research team completed all tasks from writing description, project evaluating and signing an implementation contract – which has never been included in any our research proposal.
We, the individuals and organizations that receive the funding, will make every effort to complete the research on time.”
All funding will be used for researching, manufacturing and testing vaccines, as well as determining the epidemiological characteristics of Covid-19, and building an estimation model. The purpose is to predict the infection possibility, determine the necessary response measures and give appropriate warnings.
Specifically, The Company for Vaccine and Biological Production No.1 (Vabiotech) is expected to initially produce 1,000 doses of Coronavirus vaccine (Covid-19) following the technological process of manufacturing coronavirus vaccine on baculovirus at a laboratory scale. Vaccines are evaluated on animals before testing on humans.
The Institute of Preventive Medicine and Public Health will develop a statistical analysis model, pandemic prediction tool and resources estimation.
National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology studies epidemiological characteristics, infection process, virus, serological response in infected people and response to Covid-19 pandemic in the North, the Central and the South. It is to propose solutions to prevent the pandemic.
Of the three research projects mentioned above, two projects were directly appraised, approved and managed by VINIF’s Science Council. The other one is funded by VINIF in cooperation with the Office of State Key Programs, Ministry of Science and Technology. This project is reviewed and approved by the Ministry of Science and Technology through the National Science Council.
At the signing ceremony, Assoc.Prof.Dr. Phan Thi Ha Duong (Executive Director of Vingroup Innovation Foundation – VinIF) said: “With the mission to promote scientific and technological research in Vietnam, due to complicated pandemic situation, we look forward to empowering scientists in disease prevention research; and that would be very effective if done in cooperation with the state.
Despite the urgent time, the selected projects have been strictly reviewed by the National Council or the Science Council of the Foundation. We hope that Vietnam will make scientific contributions and will succeed in this challenge against the pandemic ”
This is the first time the Ministry of Science and Technology has mobilized social resources to carry out unexpected research tasks during Covid-19 epidemic. Vingroup is also the first private enterprise to join hands with the State in combating disease and protecting public health. The model is a typical example showing that Vietnam’s ecosystem of science – technology and innovation have been developing, when businesses joined the State to solve urgent social science and technology problems.
