TEHRAN – In a ceremony at Imam Khomeini hospital in Tehran, the clinical trial of the first domestically produced mRNA-based vaccine for the coronavirus started on Saturday.

The first vial of this vaccine was produced two years ago, and with the injection of the first vial of this vaccine, this plan has entered clinical trials, ISNA reported.

For the production of the vaccine, processes such as vaccine design, genetic engineering (DNA structures), mRNA production and purification, formulation, and quality control have been implemented.

Conducting pre-clinical studies on rats and monkeys, obtaining relevant approvals and licenses, and conducting human clinical studies in three phases are among the measures taken in the trial phase.

Currently, among the vaccine platforms, the four models of inactivated virus, recombinant, vaccines based on adenovirus vector, and mRNA are preferred over others.

The results of the preclinical studies showed that by injecting this type of vaccine, the amount of neutralizing antibodies is greater than in other types of vaccines.

The durability of the antibody is also quite significant. In this way, more effectiveness of this type of vaccine in preventing the infection of COVID-19 will be expected.

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 country has been able to reduce the COVID mortalities from 700 cases to less than 10, and this successful experience of the Islamic Republic was made known in the seventy-fifth session of the World Health Assembly, Health Minister Bahram Einollahi said in May 2022.

Considering those five coronavirus vaccines that have so far been produced domestically, Mohammad Reza Shanehsaz, the former head of the Food and Drug Administration, said in June 2021 that Iran is one of the few countries that has all vaccine production platforms.

MG