TEHRAN – The Swiss health ministry is negotiating with twenty countries, including Iran, to buy the coronavirus vaccine, and has established ‘special contacts’ in this regard.

“We have good relations with the Iranian health sector. Health institutions in Iran are well organized and fully equipped for clinical trials and data sets,” Nora Kronig, Vice-Director General of the Federal Office of Public Health of Switzerland, said, IRIB reported on Thursday.

Five Iranian institutions are on the list of the World Health Organization’s candidates for the vaccine, she noted.

Production of COVID-19 vaccine is being followed by 16 Iranian companies since the beginning of the outbreak, and so far 12 companies applied to produce the vaccine, 8 of which are operating, one of the companies have entered the human trial phase, and two more companies will soon test the vaccines on human, the Iranian Food and Drug Administration spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said on January 10.

COVIRAN BAREKAT, the first coronavirus vaccine made by Iranian researchers of the Headquarters for Executing the Order of the Imam, was unveiled and injected into three volunteers during a ceremony on December 29, 2020.

On January 11, the second dose of the vaccine was injected into the three volunteers.

So far, 35 people have received the first dose of the vaccine, and this number should reach 56 people in the first clinical study phase.

Mohammad Mokhber, the head of the Headquarters for Executing the Order of the Imam said on January 19 that over the next month, 2-4 million doses of vaccine will be produced monthly, which will soon reach up to 4-24 million doses.

On January 18, the second homegrown COVID-19 vaccine developed and proposed by the Razi Vaccine and Serum Research Institute has been approved to begin a clinical trial.

FB/MG