A consignment of over 50,000 vials of COVID-19 treatment medicine Remdesivir was delivered to Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City on Saturday evening as part of a deal between Vietnamese conglomerate Vingroup and Indian pharmaceutical company Cipla.

The shipment landed at the airport at 6:45 pm after leaving Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in Mumbai, India and taking a pit stop in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, a source told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.

It brings the total number of Remdesivir vials that Vietnam has received to 120,000, VnExpress news site reported. 

Saturday's arrival is part of a 500,000-Remdesivir vial package that Vingroup promised to the Ministry of Health in a bid to push back the current coronavirus outbreak in Vietnam.

A supply of 500,000 Remdesivir vials could help treat 80,000-100,000 COVID-19 patients in the country, experts estimated.

The first shipment of the drug, consisting of 50,000 vials, reached Vietnam via Tan Son Nhat on August 6. 

Remdesivir is an anti-viral medicine developed by U.S.-based Gilead Sciences. 

It has been approved for treatment of COVID-19 patients by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. 

The drug has also been featured in the COVID-19 treatment regime of over 50 countries, including Australia, Japan, Singapore, India, and Vietnam.

Cipla, among several other manufacturers, has acquired the rights to produce the drug under a licensing agreement with Gilead. 

As of Sunday morning, Vietnam had documented 336,707 COVID-19 cases, with 140,087 recoveries and 7,540 deaths, according to the Ministry of Health.

The country has detected 332,626 domestic infections in 62 out of 63 provinces and cities since the fourth wave began on April 27.

Ho Chi Minh City leads the table with 171,801 cases.

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