Vietnam to export 150,000 doses of African swine fever vaccine to the Philippines

This shipment is part of a total of 600,000 doses of Avac ASF Live that the Philippine government has ordered after allowing it to be circulated in the country from July 2024.

On August 26, a Philippine delegation inspected the Avac Factory's storage facility in Hung Yen. Mr. Engr. Rosendo O.So, Chairman of Sinag and Ms. Pinky Pe Tobiano, CEO of KPP Powers Commodites Inc - the importer of Avac's African swine fever vaccine, said the purpose of the visit was to monitor and help distinguish between vaccines purchased by the Philippine Government and smuggled vaccines.

Currently, Vietnam is the only country that has successfully researched, developed and commercialized this vaccine. Dr. Nguyen Van Diep, General Director of Avac Vietnam, said that the Philippines is the second country besides Vietnam to allow the circulation of the African swine fever vaccine.

"The Philippine government hopes to solve ASF with a vaccine solution," said Engr. Rosendo O.So.

According to Ms. Pinky Pe Tobiano, currently the assessments of safety, protection effectiveness, research records, and data in cooperation with Avac Vietnam are all guaranteed. The registration progress is in accordance with the requirements of the Philippine Drug Administration. Decisions are made based on scientific evidence and basis.

In addition to the Philippines, Nigeria has also ordered 5,000 doses for evaluation. Countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Nepal, and Myanmar are in the process of registering.

According to Dr. Diep, proactive domestic production helps Vietnam have key strategic products to export abroad, creating opportunities for subsequent products.

It took Avac nearly three years to successfully research and develop and bring the vaccine to market. Dr. Diep, the team leader, said that while doing postdoctoral research in Japan, he was introduced to the African swine fever project. Upon returning home, he and his colleagues began their research. "We conducted more than 115 experiments on animals, many experiments in the lab, gene sequencing, and continuously improved strains and vaccine production processes to create the best processes," he emphasized.

The vaccine developed by the team was licensed in July 2023. Avac then supplied nearly 300,000 doses of Avac ASF Live vaccine to Cao Bang, Lang Son, Bac Ninh, Lai Chau... Pigs were monitored and tested 28 days after vaccination. All vaccinated pigs were healthy, and no facility had an outbreak.

Currently, Avac Vietnam can supply about 2-5 million doses per month. This capacity is enough to supply the Vietnamese market and some Southeast Asian countries.

Avac Vietnam's leader said that currently, the world does not have standards for African swine fever vaccines. "This is a barrier that causes some countries to still wait for standards to evaluate this vaccine," said Mr. Diep, adding that it is expected that by 2025, there will be standards for African swine fever vaccines so that countries can have guidelines for building their own safety procedures.

Avac ASF Live vaccine is a freeze-dried attenuated vaccine grown on DMAC cell lines. This vaccine is recommended for a single dose and the protection period is at least 5 months. Currently, a dose of vaccine for pigs costs from 61,000 to 69,000 VND/dose. According to Mr. Diep, this price is high, so the company plans to have a price reduction roadmap after the commercial period to suit farmers.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, in the first 7 months of 2024, there were 632 outbreaks of African swine fever in 44 provinces and cities nationwide, forcing the culling of over 40,500 pigs. Compared to the same period in 2023, the number of African swine fever outbreaks increased 2.4 times and the number of pigs that died and were forced to be culled increased 3.25 times.

In Vietnam, in addition to Avac, Navetco and Dabaco are also researching African swine fever vaccines.