Iran announces first phase of human testing of "Iranian Corona Vaccine" with 56 people

A member of the scientific committee of the Coronavirus Response Headquarters says that the first phase of human testing of the "Iranian coronavirus vaccine" will likely begin from the first week of January onwards.

Minoo Mahrez, whom ISNA News Agency has also named as the lead researcher of the Iranian coronavirus vaccine production project, added that this phase will begin with the participation of 56 people.

According to him, "In this phase, two injections are given to volunteers two weeks apart. That is, they first receive one injection and then two weeks later receive the second injection."

Regarding when the "Iranian Corona vaccine" will be ready, Ms. Mahrez announced that "if everything goes successfully and we receive approval from the World Health Organization, we will finally be able to have the Iranian Corona vaccine in late spring."

Previously, some domestic critics of the Ministry of Health's policies regarding the production of the "Iranian Corona vaccine" had said that the vaccine would not be available until late spring. This is despite the fact that there is still six months until then and many could become infected and fall victim.

In recent weeks, various authorities have recommended that the Ministry of Health and Medical Services place on the agenda the purchase of existing vaccines, especially Pfizer-BioNTech, whose effectiveness has been proven to be up to 95 percent.

However, Islamic Republic officials have made contradictory statements in this regard, ranging from claims of sanctions and obstacles to transferring foreign currency to purchase foreign vaccines to the lack of the necessary infrastructure to store the vaccine at a temperature of minus 70 degrees.

This comes while Nasser Riahi, head of the Iranian Pharmaceutical Importers Union, said that there is "no problem" in transferring foreign currency to import the coronavirus vaccine and other pharmaceutical items from abroad to Iran.

Various countries around the world have been pre-purchasing several major vaccines for months, as research on vaccines under study and testing progresses, including Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and Oxford. However, Iran has announced to the COVAX program - under the supervision of the World Health Organization - that it does not want the Pfizer vaccine.

On Sunday night, a large number of Iranian users launched a Twitter storm with the hashtag "Buy the vaccine" and demanded that the Islamic Republic's authorities be held accountable in this regard.

Iranian Health Minister Saeed Namaki claimed on Iranian TV Channel 3 on Sunday night that "many efforts" are underway to purchase a foreign vaccine, and that this vaccine "will be procured from the most reliable and authoritative sources, and in the coming days we will inform the public of good news regarding the arrival of the vaccine."

"Iranian vaccine with weakened virus method"

In another part of his statements about the "Iranian Corona vaccine," Minoo Mahrez said that this vaccine "is based on the method of killing and weakening the virus, which also provides good immunity."

He added: The institution that is supposed to conduct human testing of the domestic vaccine is "affiliated with the Executive Headquarters of the Imam's Decree."

The Executive Headquarters of the Imam's Decree is an economic institution under the supervision of the Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran and also holds the monopoly on mask production in the country.

The news of the production of the "Iranian Corona vaccine" comes at a time when Reza Malekzadeh, the then Deputy Minister of Technology and Research of Iran's Health, had said on November 13 that we do not have "some of the necessary infrastructure" to produce a corona vaccine, but we do have the "knowledge to manufacture" this vaccine.

Source: Radio Farda