TEHRAN – A number of countries have requested to purchase the Iranian-made Cov Pars vaccine for COVID-19, and negotiations are underway to take the necessary measures for export, vice president for research and technology of Razi Vaccine and Serum Research Institute, said.

Developed by the Razi Vaccine and Serum Research Institute, Razi Cov Pars is the second Iranian-made vaccine that started the clinical trial on February 27.

“Our main priority is to meet the country’s need, however, after meeting the domestic needs, we will export this technological product,” IRNA quoted Mohammad-Hossein Fallah as saying on Friday.

Regarding the clinical trial of the vaccine on children aged 18 or younger, he said that "We have sent the vaccination test protocol for the 12-17 years old age group to the Food and Drug Administration, and we hope to start trial within the next 2 weeks.”

The study has been conducted to use the vaccine as a booster dose and the results will be sent to the Food and Drug Administration in the next few days to receive the license, he further noted.

The vaccine is protein-based, which employs recombinant versions of the spike protein and tutors the immune system against the virus by producing antibodies.

It is developed in 3 doses. The first two doses are injectable and the third dose is intranasal. The second dose of the vaccine will be injected into the volunteers 21 days later and the third dose will be inhaled 51 days later.

At the end of the second phase of clinical trials, Cov Pars proved 80 percent of the immunogenicity.

Razi Institute (affiliated with the Ministry of Agriculture) is capable of producing 20 million doses of vaccine by the end of 2021, Agriculture Minister Javad Sadatinejad said.

FB/MG