The history
      The Institute of Vaccines and Medical Biologicals (IVAC) was established on the 23rd November 1978. At first, it was called Da Lat Pasteur Institute with its headquarters located in Da Lat  city, and facility in Nha Trang city  was an affiliate. By 1981, the headquarters of the Institute was relocated to 9 Pasteur street, Nha Trang city while the facilities in Da Lat and Suoi Dau  became affiliated.
     The Institute had undergone changes in name and organizational structure for 10 times. Nowadays, IVAC with headquarters in Nha Trang and Suoi Dau facility; the Da Lat affiliate became a separate company called Company of Vaccines – Pasteur Dalat.
     IVAC’s main functions and tasks related to vaccines and medical biologicals include research and development, production, business and service consultancy, technology transfer cooperation, vaccines supply for the National Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) and people throughout the country.
 
IVAC’s contributions in the protection of people's health
      During the course of continued development for the past 35 years, the Institute of Vaccines and Medical Biologicals has significantly contributed to implementing a policy of the Party, Government and Ministry of Health on “self-reliant local production of vaccine”. Since 1990, the Institute has supplied 300 million doses of Diphtheria, Tetanus and Pertussis vaccine (DTP), Live BCG freeze-dried vaccine (BCG), Tetanus Toxoid (TT) to the EPI, which effectively contributed to the elimination of neonatal tetanus in Vietnam by 2005 and to the significant reduction of morbidity and mortality of dangerous infectious diseases. In addition, the Institute has developed and provided various sera and other essential medical products for prophylactic treatment such as Tetanus Antitoxin (SAT), Diptheria Antitoxin (SAD), Equine Rabies Immune Globulin (SAR), Surperferon (Interferon a-2b), and Im.BCG for bladder cancer therapy… Especially, two antivenom sera against Naja Kaouthia and Trimeresurus Albolabris have helped save thousands of lives of people every year.
      International cooperation and scientific research are highlights in the development of the Institute of Vaccines and Medical Biologicals. IVAC has collaborated with different vaccine developers from Hungary, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Denmark, the United States, Indonesia… Through this collaboration, IVAC has been able to produce useful and life-saving products for the society and strengthen its technology development, which helped make IVAC’s reputation greater domestically and internationally. The cooperation with UNICEF and WHO during the 1980s of last century has brought tremendous efficiency in the delivery of vaccines for the EPI, and profound impacts to the international cooperation relations in scientific and technoloy development. Nowadays, since 2007, international organizations such as WHO and PATH, through their cooperative agreements with BARDA/HHS, have funded IVAC multiple millions of dollars to develop a fully functional influenza vaccine production facility. IVAC was one of the first WHO member country, in the year of 2007 to receive funding from WHO’s Global Action Plan (GAP) for  the developing countries to increase vaccine production capacity in resonse to pandemic influenza threat.
      IVAC established and operated a Quality Management System early, from the year of 1998. Thanks to the enhanced quality management system which is able to asure quality of lot release, be responsible for product registration, inspection and training, etc., along with the focussed investment, upgraded infrastructure, optimized production process, and qualified quality control, IVAC has step by step been able improved its product quality. To date, IVAC has received 10 WHO-GMP certificates issued by Drug Administration of Vietnam, including 8 GMP certificates for 8 products (DPT, BCG, TT, SAT, SAD, SAV-tri, SAV-naja, TT in 1 dose packing) and 2 GMP certificates for the fill-finish facility, and for the influenza vaccines production line. At the same time, IVAC continues the application of the ISO management system ISO 9001: 2000, ISO 9001: 2008.