TEHRAN – Iranian Health Minister Bahram Einollahi said on Monday that the country has exported 200,000 doses of domestically-made vaccines for coronavirus to Nicaragua.

“The ministry is ready to export four million doses of vaccine,” IRNA quoted Einollahi as saying.

Iran is among the pioneering countries in terms of vaccine production as six centers are currently producing kinds of vaccines, he explained.

“Thanks to self-sufficiency, we are also ready to provide other countries with medicine.”

In November 2021, Health Ministry issued a license to export 20 percent of the domestically-produced coronavirus vaccines.

“We intend to use domestic products in the reminder dose and measures have been taken in this regard,” Kamal Heydari, the deputy health minister, said, adding, homegrown vaccines have good immunogenicity and efficacy to be booster doses.

Iran is the sixth country in the world and the first country in West Asia to gain the ability to produce the Coronavirus vaccine.

The Iranian-made COVIRAN Barkat is the first vaccine in West Asia that is in the process of global registration.

Made by researchers at the Headquarters for Executing the Order of the Imam, COVIRAN was unveiled on December 29, 2020, and received the license for public use on June 14, 2021.

According to a new study, the effectiveness of COVIRAN Barkat vaccine in fighting the coronavirus has been more than foreign rivals, namely Sinopharm, AstraZeneca, and Sputnik.

In June 2021, Hassan Jalili, the vaccine’s production manager, said eleven countries from Asia and South America, and a European country have asked for importing COVIRAN vaccine.

MG