Iran Invites Private Companies to Import Coronavirus Vaccines

Iran’s Food and Drug Organization has issued a call inviting pharmaceutical import companies to submit their documents if they are “capable” of providing coronavirus vaccines from “sources approved by this organization.”

This is the first time private companies in Iran have been invited to import COVID-19 vaccines.

Heydar Mohammadi, Director General of Pharmaceutical Affairs and Controlled Substances at the organization, on Wednesday, the fourth day of Farvardin, asked pharmaceutical import companies that if they are “capable of providing COVID-19 vaccines from credible sources approved by this organization,” to “urgently” submit their requests along with documentation.

This request comes after widespread criticism over recent months regarding Hassan Rouhani’s government’s management of purchasing and importing foreign coronavirus vaccines.

Many users on social networks have protested the government’s performance and the statements of Iran’s Supreme Leader regarding the ban on importing coronavirus vaccines from the United States and Britain.

Following Ali Khamenei’s ban on the entry of vaccines produced in the United States and Britain, Iran’s Ministry of Health proceeded to order vaccines from Russia, India, and China.

However, the Tasnim news agency, citing Hossein Ali Shahryari, chairman of the health and treatment commission of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, wrote that in accordance with Ali Khamenei’s statements, “no company is permitted to import vaccines from America and Britain.”

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

Despite the Iranian health minister’s promise to vaccinate 1.3 million people by the end of 1399, Kianush Jahanpur, the director of public relations at the Ministry of Health, stated that only 700,000 doses of coronavirus vaccine have been distributed in the country’s health network so far.

On the second day of Farvardin, in an interview with Tehran Radio, he said that the country’s vaccination campaign is underway with China’s Sinopharm vaccine, Russia’s Sputnik V, and India’s Covaxin.

The IRNA news agency also reported on Wednesday, citing Iran’s embassy in Russia, that it has received the fourth shipment of Russian Sputnik V 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 vaccine, and vaccination of citizens to prevent COVID-19 began with the import of 20,000 doses of Sputnik V from the 21st of Bahman of year 99.

As reported by the chairman of the health and treatment commission of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, the Razi Institute, Pasteur Institute, knowledge-based companies, the Barekat Foundation, and two companies from the Ministry of Defense are currently working to produce coronavirus vaccines.

Iranian Ministry of Health officials have been promoting domestic coronavirus vaccine production for months, and clinical trials of some of them have been reported in the media. However, none of these efforts have yet resulted in a vaccine that has broad authorization for injection.

Based on the latest government figures, the number of coronavirus victims in Iran has reached 62,045; a figure that is subject to serious doubt by independent sources, and even Iran’s Medical Association considers the number of coronavirus deaths in the country to be at least three to four times higher than the Ministry of Health’s figures.

Source: Radio Farda