TEHRAN – Health Minister Bahram Einollahi has said the country is currently exporting domestically-made vaccines for coronavirus to ten African countries.

“We started exporting coronavirus vaccines one or two weeks ago,” he said, adding, “For the time being, Iranian-made vaccines are being exported to ten African countries,” IRNA reported on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the head of the Food and Drug Organization has said some four million doses of domestically-made vaccines have been so far exported.

“Despite limitations of the World Health Organization, Iranian products are waiting to be confirmed by the organization,” Bahram Daraei wrote on his Twitter account on Wednesday.

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has pledged to expedite the process of evaluating and registering Iranian vaccines to receive an emergency use license, appreciating Iran's efforts to develop vaccines against the global pandemic.

He made the remarks during a meeting with Kazem Gharibabadi, the Judiciary’s deputy chief for international affairs and secretary of Iran’s Human Rights Headquarters, on the sidelines of the 49th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva.

“Iran’s high progress in the health system and the expansion of health network coverage throughout the country has increased the rate of vaccination.
The high rate of vaccination in Iran, as well as the inoculation of foreign refugees, are among other good public control measures that have stabilized the country’s health condition,” he stated, IRNA reported.

Referring to the impact of U.S. sanctions on drugs and medical equipment, he said that humanitarian items should be exempted from economic sanctions so that we will take the necessary steps in this regard.

He also promised to speed up the process of registering domestically produced vaccines in Iran.

WHO representative to Iran Jaffar Hussain said in September 2021 that the Organization was collecting the necessary information for the registration and certification of Iranian-made coronavirus vaccines.

On January 28, the process for global registration of the Iranian-made “COVIRAN Barkat” vaccine started by holding a virtual meeting with the World Health Organization officials.

COVIRAN is the first vaccine in West Asia that is in the process of global registration, IRIB reported.

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

MG