Iran invites private companies to import coronavirus vaccine

The Food and Drug Administration of Iran issued a call inviting drug importing companies to submit their documentation if they are "able" to supply the coronavirus vaccine from "sources approved by this organization."

This is the first time that private companies in Iran have been invited to import the Covid-19 vaccine.

On Wednesday, April 24, Haidar Mohammadi, the director general of the organization's controlled drug and substance affairs, called on drug importing companies to "urgently" submit their request along with documentation "if they are able to supply the COVID-19 vaccine from reliable sources approved by the organization."

This request comes after widespread criticism over the past few months regarding the management of Hassan Rouhani's government in purchasing and importing foreign coronavirus vaccines.

Many users on social media have protested the government's actions, as well as the words of the Leader of the Islamic Republic regarding the ban on importing coronavirus vaccines from the United States and Britain.

After Ali Khamenei banned the import of vaccines produced in the United States and Britain, the Iranian Ministry of Health began ordering vaccines from Russia, India, and China.

However, Tasnim News Agency quoted Hossein Ali Shahriari, head of the Islamic Consultative Assembly's Health and Medical Services Commission, as saying that, according to Ali Khamenei's statements, "no company is allowed to import vaccines from the US and the UK."

Iranian Ministry of Health officials have not yet explicitly announced which countries private companies are allowed to import coronavirus vaccines from.

Despite the Iranian Minister of Health's promise to vaccinate 1.3 million people by the end of 2020, Kianoush Jahanpour, Public Relations Director of the Ministry of Health, said that so far only 700,000 doses of the coronavirus vaccine have been distributed in the country's healthcare network.

In an interview with Radio Tehran on April 2nd, he said that national vaccination with China's Sinopharm, Russia's Sputnik V, and India's Covaxin vaccines is underway in the country.

The IRNA news agency also reported on Wednesday, citing the Iranian embassy in Russia, that it had received the fourth shipment of the Russian Sputnik coronavirus vaccine, which includes 100,000 doses.

This shipment is scheduled to be sent to Tehran on Thursday by Mahan Airlines.

Iran has so far received three shipments of Russian coronavirus vaccines, and vaccination of citizens to prevent COVID-19 has begun with the import of 20,000 doses of Sputnik V since February 11, 2020.

As reported by the head of the Health and Medical Services Commission of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, the Razi Institute, the Pasteur Institute, knowledge-based companies, the Barakat Foundation, and two companies from the Ministry of Defense are currently working to develop a coronavirus vaccine.

Iranian health officials have been promoting the development of domestic coronavirus vaccines for months, and clinical trials of a number of them have been widely reported. However, none of these efforts have yet resulted in a vaccine that is licensed for widespread use.

According to the latest government statistics, the number of coronavirus victims in Iran has reached 62,045; a figure whose accuracy is seriously questioned by independent sources, and even the Iranian Medical System Organization believes that the number of coronavirus victims in the country is at least three to four times higher than the Ministry of Health's figures.

Source: Radio Farda