President Phúc visits Pfizer headquarters in New York, urges speeding up vaccine delivery in deal

Vietnamese President Nguyễn Xuân Phúc on Thursday (US time) visited the headquarters of Pfizer in New York, during his trip to the US to attend the 76th session of the UN General Assembly.

During the meeting, President Phúc praised Pfizer's positive role in COVID-19 prevention and control, especially with the successful development of its mRNA vaccine, acknowledged by the entire world as a highly effective 'weapon' to fight the pandemic.

He appreciated the total shipments of 2.8 million doses of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines to Việt Nam so far which has contributed to the country's COVID-19 response, as well as its commitment to deliver the entirety of the deal of 31 million doses in the remaining months of the year.

He asked Pfizer to accelerate supplies to Việt Nam as soon as possible and work to ensure that the remainder of the deal will arrive in Việt Nam this year, and soon finalise a roadmap for the delivery of 20 million doses of Pfizer vaccines for children between 12-18 years old.

The Vietnamese leader also asked Pfizer to soon complete procedures so that Việt Nam could soon receive the unneeded doses from other countries' orders with Pfizer, when bilateral agreements between Việt Nam and these countries have been reached such as in the case of Poland, which had agreed to transfer 3 million doses to Việt Nam.

Jonathan Selib, Senior Vice President of Global Policy at Pfizer, said Pfizer always had a good partnership with Việt Nam, and pledged to deliver 31 million vaccine doses for use on adults to Việt Nam in 2021, as well as the 20 million doses of vaccines that the health ministry intended to reserve for children once the company has full data on safety and effectiveness on these groups.

He also took note of Việt Nam's request for cooperation in vaccine production, and would facilitate procedures to help Việt Nam with the Poland vaccine transfer agreement.

Pfizer welcomed the launch of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Southeast Asia Regional Office in Hà Nội during US Vice President Kamala Harris' trip to Việt Nam last month, he said, adding that this showcased the US' confidence in Việt Nam's prevention and control efforts.

Pfizer in coordination with the CDC regional office would keep in close cooperation to help Việt Nam fight infectious diseases, the company's representative told President Phúc.