TEHRAN – COVIRAN BAREKAT, the first coronavirus vaccine made by Iranian researchers, started the third phase of the human trial, Mostafa Qanei, secretary of the biotechnology development office of the Vice Presidency for Science and Technology, announced.

Developed by researchers at the Headquarters for Executing the Order of the Imam, the vaccine was unveiled on December 29, 2020, and started to be mass-produced on March 29.

If the third phase of the human test is successful, the vaccine will enter the market in mid-June, he stated, adding, COVIRAN BAREKAT will be the first homegrown vaccine to enter the market.

Out of 16 vaccine production cases, four cases will start mass-production and another three to four cases will succeed in receiving license by September, he said, IRNA reported on Wednesday.

Iran is currently producing vaccines jointly with three countries of Cuba, Russia, and Australia, he noted, expressing hope that these vaccines can also be released by September.

One of the vaccines is the Cuban-Iranian Soberana-02 vaccine, and the other is the Russian-Iranian Gamaleya vaccine, while the third joint vaccine will be produced in Iran in cooperation with Australia, Qanei further explained.

Iran started mass vaccination against COVID-19 with Russian-made Sputnik V vaccine on February 9; which is also going to be co-produced by the two countries.

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

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 Wednesday, Health Ministry’s spokesperson Sima-Sadat Lari confirmed 24,886 new cases of COVID-19 infection, raising the total number of infections to 2,311,813. She added that 1,823,958 patients have so far recovered, but 4,991 remain in critical conditions of the disease.

During the past 24 hours, 388 patients have lost their lives, bringing the total number of deaths to 67,913, she added.

So far, 14,739,719 COVID-19 diagnostic tests have been performed in the country.

FB/MG