TEHRAN – The Cuba-Iran Soberana-02 COVID-19 vaccine received a code of ethics to start the third phase of the clinical trial in Iran, according to the Ministry of Health.

Manufactured by Cuba's Finlay Vaccine Institute and Pasteur Institute of Iran, the vaccine is a conjugate vaccine with two injectable doses. It consists of the receptor-binding domain of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein conjugated chemically to tetanus toxoid.

The two first phases of the human trial have been conducted in Cuba, while the third phase will be performed on a population of 18 to 80 years in Iran, and Mexico.

On March 11, some 100,000 doses of the Cuban vaccine, were delivered to Iran, as part of Havana's cooperation program with other countries to develop the vaccine.

The vaccine is to be produced jointly with Cuba after vaccinating 50,000 Iranians and studying the results at the Pasteur Institute of Iran.

Alireza Raeisi, spokesman for the National Headquarters for Coronavirus control said that so far, a total of 1,895,000 doses of vaccine has been delivered to the country, including, 420,000 doses of Sputnik V vaccine from Russia, 650,000 doses of vaccine from China, 125,000 doses from India, 700,000 doses of Astrazeneca vaccine from South Korea (from the World Health Organization's COVAX facility).

According to the latest announcement of the Ministry of Health, 376,684 people have received the first dose of Corona vaccine and 121,803 people the second dose of the vaccine in Iran.

Homegrown vaccines

COVIRAN BAREKAT, the first coronavirus vaccine made by researchers at the Headquarters for Executing the Order of the Imam which was unveiled on December 29, 2020, started to be mass-produced on March 29.

The second Iranian coronavirus vaccine, Razi Cov Pars, which started the clinical trial on February 27, will be mass-produced in early August.

Fakhra vaccine, the third homegrown vaccine, was unveiled and started the clinical trial on March 16.

On January 27, Health Minister Saeed Namaki said Iran will soon be one of the world’s important manufacturers of the COVID-19 vaccine.

New cases and mortalities

In a press briefing on Sunday, Health Ministry’s spokesperson Sima-Sadat Lari confirmed 21,644 new cases of COVID-19 infection, raising the total number of infections to 2,237,089. She added that 1,785,358 patients have so far recovered, but 4,766 remain in critical conditions of the disease.

During the past 24 hours, 405 patients have lost their lives, bringing the total number of deaths to 66,732, she added.

So far, 14,386,423 COVID-19 diagnostic tests have been performed in the country.

FB/MG