TEHRAN – Some 200,000 doses of COVIRAN BAREKAT vaccine have been recently delivered to the Ministry of Health for public vaccination, Hassan Jalili, the vaccine’s production manager, said on Sunday.

After the Ministry of Health issued an emergency use license for COVIRAN vaccine, we increased the production speed, and so far about five million doses have been produced and sent to the quality testing department, which will be delivered to the Ministry of Health after quality approval, he explained.

COVIRAN BAREKAT was unveiled on December 29, 2020, and received the license for public use on June 14. It proved effective against Indian strain. In recent weeks, 1.3 million doses had been handed over to the Ministry of Health, reaching the whole doses to 1.5 million, he added, IRNA reported.

COVIRAN vaccine is currently being administrated by the Ministry of Health in most of the provinces of the country and has been well received by the people, he concluded.

1.5 million doses to be produced by next week

By the end of this week (August 6), a total of 1.5 million doses of vaccine will be provided to the Ministry of Health, and with the launch of the second and third lines, the production capacity of the vaccine will increase, Mohammad Mokhber, head of Headquarters for Executing the Order of the Imam, said.

Currently, one million doses of vaccine are produced in line one every week, and with the launch of lines two and three by early September, this capacity will increase two to three folds, he explained.

Homegrown COVIRAN vaccine 

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

It proved effective against Indian strain, according to Hojjat Niki-Maleki, head of the information center of Headquarters for Executing the Order of the Imam.

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

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, 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