Iran Announces Completion of First Phase Human Trial of ‘Iranian Coronavirus Vaccine’ with 56 Participants
A member of the scientific committee of the coronavirus control headquarters says that the first phase of human testing of the ‘Iranian coronavirus vaccine’ will likely begin from the first week of December onwards.
Minu Mehraze, whom the ISNA news agency has also named as the principal researcher of the Iranian coronavirus vaccine production project, added that this phase will begin with the participation of 56 people.
According to her, “In this phase, two injections will be administered to volunteers with a two-week interval. That is, first one injection is given and then two weeks later the second injection is administered.”
Regarding when the ‘Iranian coronavirus vaccine’ will be ready, Ms. Mehraze announced that “if everything goes successfully and we receive approval from the World Health Organization, ultimately by late spring we will be able to have the Iranian coronavirus vaccine.”
Earlier, some domestic critics of the Ministry of Health’s policies regarding the production of the ‘Iranian coronavirus vaccine’ had stated that this vaccine would not be available by late spring. This is while there is a six-month gap until that time, and many people could become infected and die.
In recent weeks, various authorities have recommended that the Ministry of Health and Medical Education prioritize the purchase of existing vaccines, particularly Pfizer-BioNTech, which has proven to be up to 95 percent effective.
Nevertheless, officials of the Islamic Republic have made contradictory statements on this matter, from claims of sanctions and obstacles to currency transfers for purchasing foreign vaccines to the lack of necessary infrastructure for storing the aforementioned vaccine at minus 70 degrees.
This is while Nasser Riahi, head of the Iranian Drug Importers Union, said that there is “no problem” with currency transfers for importing coronavirus vaccines and other pharmaceutical items from abroad to Iran.
Various countries around the world, months ago and simultaneously with advances in research on vaccines under study and testing, proceeded to pre-purchase several major vaccines including Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and Oxford, but Iran announced to the Covax program—under the supervision of the World Health Organization—that it does not want the Pfizer vaccine.
Sunday night, a large number of Iranian Twitter users launched a Twitter storm with the hashtag “Buy the Vaccine” and demanded accountability from Islamic Republic officials on this matter.
Said Namaki, Iran’s Minister of Health, said Sunday night on Iran’s third television network that “significant efforts” are underway to purchase foreign vaccines and we will “obtain this vaccine from the most credible and trustworthy sources and in the coming days we will inform the people of good news regarding the entry of the vaccine.”
“Iranian Vaccine with Weakened Virus Method”
Minu Mehraze, in another part of her statements about the ‘Iranian coronavirus vaccine,’ said that this vaccine “is based on the method of killed and weakened virus, and this type of vaccine also provides good immunity.”
She added: the institution that is supposed to conduct human testing of the domestic vaccine is “affiliated with the Executors of Imam’s Order Headquarters.”
The Executors of Imam’s Order Headquarters is an economic institution under the supervision of Iran’s Islamic Republic Supreme Leader and also holds the monopoly on mask production in the country.
The news of the production of the ‘Iranian coronavirus vaccine’ is announced while Reza Malekzadeh, former deputy minister for technology and research at Iran’s Ministry of Health, had said on November 14 that “some of the necessary infrastructure” for manufacturing coronavirus vaccine is lacking, but we “have the knowledge” to make this vaccine.
Source: Radio Farda
