“Iran is the First Country to Sell Coronavirus Vaccine to Its People”

Statements by some officials and an announcement by Iran’s Red Crescent regarding earlier access to the vaccine for those who can afford to purchase it have faced sharp criticism. Critics say “Iran should not be the first country to sell the vaccine to its own people.”

The situation in many Iranian provinces is dire, with some like Tehran classified as “critical.” Many hospitals have no space for non-COVID patients. Medical staff are exhausted, and the public is defenseless and angry. The government is confused and ineffective in providing vaccines in a timely and sufficient manner.

In these circumstances, news also broke that preferential exchange rates would be made available to some “private” companies to import vaccines—vaccines that would not be free. On April 19, the Bahar newspaper reported, citing an announcement from the Red Crescent Organization: “This organization will import coronavirus vaccines in the coming days, but these vaccines will not be free.”

Those Who Are in a Hurry and Have the Money

MizanNews, citing Alireza Raissian, spokesman for the National Coronavirus Task Force, indicated that “some are in a hurry,” and “the National Coronavirus Task Force has authorized individuals or companies to import vaccines using preferential exchange rates so that people who cannot wait according to the national vaccination program can use the imported vaccines and pay for them.”

He added: “According to announced policies, all people will be vaccinated for free by the end of the year, but if a person’s turn to receive the vaccine according to the national vaccination program is, for example, in December, they can receive the vaccine sooner by paying the cost.”

This came as Raissian had stated the previous day: “It is expected that the number of COVID hospitalizations in this wave will reach 60,000, and for the time being, we will not exit the critical situation.”

Meanwhile, Kianoush Jahanpour, director of public relations at the Ministry of Health, responded to reports of vaccine commercialization and declared: “The Ministry of Health rejects any parallel policy or circumvention of this national program under any name, including payment for vaccines, that violates the national vaccination program.”

Jahanpour said the Ministry of Health “rejects any parallel policy or circumvention of this national program under any name, including payment for vaccines, that violates the national vaccination program” and emphasized that “any approved vaccine, regardless of where it is imported from, will be purchased by the Ministry of Health and distributed and administered for free within the framework of the national COVID-19 vaccination program.”

Has the Vaccine Also Become a Vehicle for Profiteering?

Coronavirus vaccines are officially free in all countries. This is a point that some officials have also highlighted. The Farhekhteganis newspaper quoted Alireza Naji, a member of the scientific committee of the National Coronavirus Task Force and member of the national COVID vaccine committee, as saying: “As far as I know, no country sells vaccines to its own people. We are the first country to make such a decision. This does not look good.”

He criticized, saying: “If we can import vaccines, why shouldn’t the government acquire these vaccines and do it?” Is it really the case that “our problem is to charge people for vaccines? Does this mean that if people pay, we can import vaccines?”

According to the member of the scientific committee of the National Coronavirus Task Force, this policy prioritizes those who can afford to pay for vaccines rather than those who are at serious risk and even “at risk of death.”

He considered this policy “the height of ingratitude” to the people, where “the wealthy get vaccinated while those without money stand in line.”

“Even Capitalist Economies Don’t Resort to Such Discriminatory Measures”

Iranian media, beyond the long wait for vaccines and rescue from this situation, pointed to the government’s poor performance. The Bahar newspaper considered the statements by Raissian and Jahanpour “yet another clear symbol of confusion, bewilderment, lack of planning, and contradictory statements by officials in dealing with the coronavirus crisis and vaccination.”

The newspaper wrote that even “capitalist economies like the United States and Britain—where it is said that anything can be bought with money—do not resort to such discriminatory measures when it comes to health and vaccine purchases under these circumstances.”

Bahar also stated that such a policy “raises the question of whether, after the foreign exchange and stock markets, the government has found a new market to generate revenue from people.”

Meanwhile, some attributed the commercialization of vaccines to a “particular” nature of the Iranian people, which, by creating “false pressure,” left the government no choice. Mohammad Hossein Yazdi, head of the vaccine research center at Tehran University of Medical Sciences, said that the problem of the Iranian people is that “we are a particular people. Some people pressure the health system to import vaccines. To manage this pressure, we have to allow free access for those in a hurry. It’s not right, but there’s no other way.”

Chinese Vaccines Not So Effective

A large portion of vaccines imported into Iran are from China and Russia. According to Bahar newspaper, the Chinese themselves have announced that their vaccine “is not very effective, and unfortunately Chile’s statistics also confirm this to some extent.”

The newspaper pointed to high death rates in Chile, which “was among the best countries in vaccination, with the difference that it used the Chinese Sinopharm in vaccination” and now faces 9,000 daily infections compared to the previous peak of 7,000.

Russian vaccines also “face many caveats,” and according to Minoo Mohraz, a member of the National Coronavirus Task Force, “the Russians themselves do not trust it in their country; even when they ask Putin about the type of vaccine he received, he says only he and his doctor know about it.”

How Much Vaccine Has Been Purchased?

IRNA news agency, citing Heidar Mohammadi, director general of drug and pharmaceutical affairs at the Food and Drug Administration, reported on the amount of vaccines imported and the conditions set by the Ministry of Health for importing coronavirus vaccines by the private sector using preferential exchange rates.

According to Heidar Mohammadi: So far, 520,000 doses of Sputnik, 650,000 doses of Chinese vaccine, 700,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine, and 125,000 doses of Bharat Biotech vaccine have been imported into Iran, and approximately 500,000 doses of coronavirus vaccine have been administered to people.

Based on these statements, Covax was supposed to provide 16.8 million doses to Iran, but so far has only provided 700,000; Bharat Biotech was supposed to provide 2.5 million doses according to the contract but has only provided 125,000; and Russia has finalized 2 million doses out of its 10 million dose contract for Sputnik, of which 520,000 doses have been provided to Iran so far.

Vaccines That “We Officially Announce” Are Purchasable

He also said regarding vaccine sales to people: “Currently, the Ministry of Health’s vaccination is only through health centers and for free. Therefore, if someone says they are selling coronavirus vaccines, people should be assured that the vaccine is counterfeit, unless we officially announce it.” In other words, Heidar Mohammadi did not say vaccine sales don’t exist, but only emphasized that you should buy vaccines that “we officially announce.”

The director general of drug and pharmaceutical affairs at the Food and Drug Administration also said regarding vaccine imports by the private sector using preferential exchange rates: “We made this announcement since last July that if the private sector can import coronavirus vaccines, but it did not receive much interest, and some that expressed readiness were unable to import vaccines. Currently, however, many companies have expressed readiness to import vaccines.”

Regarding vaccine imports by the private sector, he said the only thing that matters is that “the importing company has a representation letter from the foreign vaccine manufacturing company, which is approved by the chamber of commerce of that country and our embassy in that country.”

In other words, international trading companies—which are technically “international wholesalers”—must announce that they have “valid vaccines approved” by the Iranian government. In that case, “the company receives a representation letter or introduction letter from the international wholesaler and gets it approved by the embassy and also gets a letter from the intermediary and brings it to the Food and Drug Administration. Private companies can obtain permission through these two methods to import coronavirus vaccines from the Food and Drug Administration.”

According to this report, three private sector companies have so far received permission to import coronavirus vaccines from the Food and Drug Administration.

“Barkat” Vaccine

Mostafa Qanei, secretary of the biotechnology development task force, told ISNA news agency on April 19 that the “Barkat” company vaccine will reach mass production in late May and will be distributed. The “ASVID-19” vaccine will also reach production in late September. According to him, Iran has three joint vaccines, one of which is jointly developed with Cuba and Pasteur Institute, and the second is the Gam-COVID-Vac jointly developed by Iran and Russia.

Have Iranian-made vaccines been approved by the World Health Organization? Kianoush Jahanpour declared during the Iranian vaccine trial that “vaccines do not receive WHO approval unless there is an intention to export them, in which case we would need to do so.”

Bahar newspaper, referring to these statements, wrote: “Unfortunately, Iran has not clarified whether it will submit Iranian vaccines for WHO approval, and many view this as a sign that these vaccines have not been approved by the WHO before widespread vaccination.”

According to Bahar, of all Iranian vaccines, only the Barkat vaccine is in phase three, having somewhat passed it. The rest of the vaccines are still in phase two or on the verge of phase three, indicating a long road ahead for their production.

Statistics on COVID-19 Infections and Number of Vaccine Doses Administered

According to statistics from the public relations and information center of Iran’s Ministry of Health, so far 416,084 people have received the first dose of coronavirus vaccine and 134,047 have received the second dose. The total number of vaccine doses administered in the country has reached 550,131.

From yesterday to now, 24,346 new cases of COVID-19 have been identified in Iran. The total number of COVID patients in Iran has reached 2,261,435, and during this period, 398 patients have died. The total number of deaths from this disease in Iran, according to official statistics that independent experts have serious doubts about regarding their accuracy, has reached 67,130.

Source: DW