Iran is set to roll out its first indigenously developed vaccine forcoronavirus, COV-Iran Barakat, next week after the third and final clinicaltrial.
Soberana-02 vaccine, jointly developed by Iran and Cuba, has also completedits third clinical trial and is ready for industrial line production.
Health Minister Saeed Namaki on Monday announced that the two homegrownvaccines were being mass-produced and would be administered to peoplestarting next week.
He said the second phase of the vaccine development involving clinicaltrials had been accomplished, and the third phase involving mass productionand injection was presently in progress.
Earlier on Monday, Kianush Jahanpur, head of Iran’s food and drugsadministration, in a tweet said the good news was “on the way,” referringto COV-Iran and Soberana-02 vaccines.
COV-Iran vaccine, unveiled in December last year, has been developed bystate-run Headquarters for Executing the Order of Imam. Its productionbegan late March, followed by clinical trials in late April conductedacross the country.
Hassan Jalili, head of the research center producing the vaccine, on Sundayinformed that one million doses of COV-Iran Barakat will be produced thismonth, which will go up to three million next month, 10-12 million by Julyand 13-15 million by August.
According to Minoo Mohraz, a leading medical expert and member of Iran’stask force against COVID-19, the domestically produced COV-Iran vaccine has“high efficiency and immunity”.
Read Top Stories
On the other hand, Soberana-02, developed by Cuba’s Finlay VaccineInstitute and Pasteur Institute of Iran, is the first collaborative projectinvolving transfer of technical knowledge between Iran and Cuba.
Iran, which has recovered from the fourth wave of pandemic, with drop infresh cases and fatalities, has been slow in its vaccination campaign.
The country began COVID-19 vaccination early February with Russian-madeSputnik V Vaccine. It later received vaccines from China, India, and theWHO’s COVAX, a global vaccine sharing scheme, as well.
A total of 3.5 million people have received one jab, while 516,000 havereceived both jabs, mainly healthcare workers, aged and ailing people.
President Hassan Rouhani on Saturday said the vaccination of people withdifferent ailments will end by late July and the whole population isexpected to get vaccinated by November. – Anadolu Agency
