Deputy Health Ministry Research Director warns against premature issuance of licenses for Iranian coronavirus vaccines

The deputy head of research at the Iranian Ministry of Health has warned in a letter to Health Minister Saeed Namaki against prematurely issuing emergency permits for the injection of Iranian coronavirus vaccines.

Farid Najafi stated in the letter that issuing a license for the general use of Iranian vaccines "without going through the third phase is a serious and historic decision, and only under special circumstances can licenses be granted to the Barakat and Pasteur vaccines, etc. (without going through the third phase)."

According to him, the aforementioned vaccines can be licensed without going through the clinical trial phase in situations where "there is no approved and injectable vaccine in the country, there is no realistic prospect of importing an effective vaccine in the short term, and at the same time, an acceptable amount of the domestic vaccine applying for emergency use license has been produced and is available."

This letter was written at a time when media in Iran are reporting that the country is on the verge of a fifth peak in coronavirus infections and that many priority groups have not yet been able to receive the vaccine.

In these circumstances, government-affiliated media outlets are also reporting, citing responsible officials, including military officials, about the early availability of domestically produced vaccines.

After Ali Khamenei banned the import of American and British vaccines into Iran in January last year, there has been extensive government propaganda about the production of domestic vaccines, but no details in this regard are made available to the media.

On Wednesday night, Alireza Marandi, the president of the Iranian Academy of Medical Sciences, announced that the first dose of the Iranian coronavirus vaccine will be administered to the Leader of the Islamic Republic in the coming days.

The Barakat coronavirus vaccine, which Iran has been widely advertising, is to be produced and distributed by the Imam's Decree Executive Headquarters, the most important economic institution affiliated with the office of the Leader of the Islamic Republic. According to officials of this headquarters, the majority of the vaccine production and distribution market will be allocated to this institution.

Iran has a population of about 83 million, and 160 million doses of vaccine are needed to vaccinate the entire population and at least 100 million doses of vaccine are needed to vaccinate at-risk groups. This is despite the fact that about 800,000 doses of vaccine have been administered in the first and second rounds so far.

Source: Radio Farda