TEHRAN – An article on the clinical and technical knowledge of COVIRAN Barekat - the first homegrown vaccine for coronavirus - was published in one of the most prestigious international journals.

Made by researchers at the Headquarters for Executing the Order of the Imam, COVIRAN Barekat was unveiled on December 29, 2020, and received the license for public use on June 14.

After presenting the scientific article and documents on the production of the Barekat vaccine and passing the evaluation process, the pre-clinical article was published in the Journal of Medical Virology with an impact factor of 98.6 and in the Q1 category, IRNA quoted Asghar Abdoli, the vaccine’s project technologist, as saying.

Numerous articles related to the homegrown vaccine have been submitted to reputable journals and are awaiting evaluation, he noted, expressing hope that other articles will be published soon.

The vaccine proved effective against Indian strain, according to Hojjat Niki-Maleki, head of the information center of Headquarters for Executing the Order of the Imam.

Eleven countries from Asia and South America, and a European country have asked for importing COVIRAN vaccine, Hassan Jalili, the vaccine’s production manager, has said in June.

According to the Food and Drug Administration, 14 vaccines are being domestically developed in the country which are in different study phases.

Pastu Covac, developed jointly by the Pasteur Institute of Iran and Cuba's Finlay Vaccine Institute, is another homegrown vaccine, which has received the emergency use license, after COVIRAN.

The second Iranian-made vaccine was developed by the Razi Vaccine and Serum Research Institute (Razi Cov Pars); which started the clinical trial on February 27.

Fakhra vaccine, the third domestically-developed COVID-19 vaccine, was unveiled and started the clinical trial on March 16.

FB/MG