TEHRAN – One million doses of “Razi Cov Pars” vaccine will be produced each month as of the sixth calendar month Shahrivar (starting August 23), Mohammad-Hassan Fallah Mehrabadi, deputy head of the Razi Vaccine and Serum Research Institute has announced.

Razi Cov Pars is the second Iranian-made vaccine that started the clinical trial on February 27.

Developed by the Razi Vaccine and Serum Research Institute, the vaccine is protein-based, which employs recombinant versions of the spike protein and tutors the immune system against the virus by producing antibodies.

The vaccine 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.

The first phase of the vaccine was performed on 133 people, the second phase also started on May 28 by being administrated to 500 people.

By the end of next week, with the completion of the second dose injection to all volunteers, this phase of the clinical trial will come to an end, Fallah Mehrabadi added.

The third phase of the vaccine is expected to begin by mid-August, being administrated to at least 20,000 people, he explained.

The mass production will start with a capacity of 1 million doses per month, he concluded.

Mass vaccination against COVID-19 started on Iranian citizens with the Russian-made Sputnik V vaccine on February 9.

While Iran continues efforts to mass-produce local candidates, over 13 million doses of foreign vaccines have already been imported and others are expected soon.

Iran is also producing vaccines jointly with two countries Russia, and Australia, which may also be released by September.

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

FB/MG