Iran has joined the limited number of countries which have developed home-made coronavirus vaccine, a spokesman said.
“One of the greatest successes in the country over the past decades was Iran’s joining the limited club of coronavirus vaccine producers,” Government Spokesman Ali Rabiyee told reporters in a press conference in Tehran on Tuesday.
“This national honor has been achieved under the hardest conditions in the country and at the peak of (the US-imposed) sanctions,” he added.
Rabiyee said that by the end of the Summer, in addition to imports, at least 30 million doses of the home-made COV-Iran Barekat vaccine, 3 million doses of the Pasteurcovac vaccine and several million doses of Iran-made Sputnik V vaccine will be produced inside the country, adding that 120mln doses of vaccine needed by the country will be supplied by the end of the Iranian year (March 20).
Iranian Health Minister Saeed Namaki said on Monday that the country hopes to vaccinate all target groups against coronavirus by the end of fall, adding that Iran will be able to export its indigenized vaccine to foreign states in early winter.
“In addition to meeting the country’s needs to coronavirus vaccine by fall, we can be an exporter by early winter,” Namaki said, addressing a ceremony in the Northern province of Golestan.
“We hope to vaccinate the entire target population by the end of fall in the country,” he added.
Namaki also said that during efforts to develop infrastructures this year, 14,000 hospital beds will be added to the hospitals and other clinical centers across the country, adding that 470 oxygen generators joined the health sector.
He added that the coronavirus vaccine developed by Pasteur Institute of Iran vaccine will be licensed for emergency injection on Tuesday, noting that the home-made Razi vaccine is finishing the second phase of human trial and CinnaGen vaccine is in the second phase.
The minister also said that the Iran-made Sputnik-V vaccine will be unveiled next Saturday in the presence of the Iranian ambassador to Russia.
Elsewhere, Namaki also blasted the US for imposing sanctions on Iran’s imports of vaccine, saying that Washington has just declared just in the past few days that it will lift the embargos on vaccine.
Iran’s High Council of Human Rights (HCHR) rapped the United States’ issuing sanctions waivers on the coronavirus-related items only after Tehran has made indigenous vaccines.
"82,000 Iranians were killed with the Coronavirus and the US issues sanctions waivers now after 16 months from the beginning of the virus spread and after Iran made its own vaccine," HCHR tweeted on Sunday.
“The Iranian nation's demand is to remove the illegal sanctions and punish those who imposed them," it added.
The US Treasury Department recently issued guidance easing the way for delivery of products such as face masks, ventilators, and vaccines to combat the coronavirus pandemic to heavily sanctioned countries like Iran, Venezuela, and Syria.
The guidance contradicts the previous remarks by US officials on exemption of humanitarian items from sanctions.
Senior member of Iran’s National Task Force for Fighting COVID-19 Minou Mohraz said last Wednesday that the coronavirus vaccine, COV-Iran Barekat, which has been developed by Iranian scientists at the Headquarters for Executing the Order of Imam Khomeini (HEIKO), is more efficient than the China-made Sinopharm vaccine.
“COV-Iran Barekat vaccine is more efficient than the Chinese Sinopharm,” said Mohraz, also a senior member of the team to assess the efficiency of the Iran-made vaccine.
“Based on available assessments, effectiveness of this vaccine in terms of neutralizing antibodies is about 80%; in addition, this vaccine has not shown any serious side effect,” she added.
Mohraz said a limited number of COV-Iran Barekat vaccine doses has already been supplied to the market "and by the end of June, another 2 to 3 million doses will be delivered for public vaccination, and then in the next one to two months, several million doses of the vaccine will be produced each month in the main plant".
She had also last week said that COV-Iran Barekat vaccine is efficient and has no significant side effects.
“Barekat vaccine has no side effects and one million doses of the vaccine are ready (for injection),” said Mohraz.
She also assured people not to be worried about the shortage of foreign vaccines in Iran, saying that even those who have received the first dose of imported vaccines can use COV-Iran vaccine for their second dose.
In relevant remarks late last month, Head of HEIKO Mohammad Mokhber said that nearly 30 million doses of COV-Iran Barekat vaccine will be produced and delivered to the health ministry.
“One million doses of the vaccine will be produced this month, 3 million doses next month, 10 to 12 million doses in July, and 13 to 15 million doses in August,” Mokhber said, adding that the vaccines would be given to the Health Ministry for vaccination.
He noted that from September, 20 million doses of the vaccine would be produced monthly.
The official pointed out that people's concerns regarding the virus would be resolved within the next 3 to 4 months.
He concluded that all Iranian vaccines had achieved the human testing phase and desirable results, but COV-Iran Barekat has had fewer side effects.