TEHRAN – An article on the first two clinical trial phases of COVIRAN - the first homegrown vaccine for coronavirus - was published in “BMJ Open”, a leading multidisciplinary medical journal.

The article, entitled “Safety and immunogenicity of an inactivated virus particle vaccine for SARS-CoV-2, BIV1-CovIran: findings from double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, phase I and II clinical trials among healthy adults”, is compiled by Minoo Mohraz, Mohammadreza Salehi, and Payam Tabarsi.

The study presents the results of phase I and II randomized placebo-controlled clinical trials of the BIV1-CovIran vaccine to assess its safety and immunogenicity.

In this study, it was stated that the use of two doses of five micrograms of COVIRAN at intervals of 28 days is safe and makes the body immune to the coronavirus. It was also found that the severity of all complications was mild to moderate and transient. This article suggests that evaluation of the safety and efficacy of this vaccine is essential in the third phase clinical trial.

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

In October 2021, an article on the pre-clinical and technical knowledge of COVIRAN Barkat was published in the prestigious international Journal of Medical Virology.

The process for global registration of the vaccine started in January by holding a virtual meeting with the World Health Organization officials.

Global vaccine registration is a complex process, and COVIRAN is the first vaccine in the West Asian region that is in the process of global registration, which will be ready for export and inclusion in the COVAX facility.

Iran is the sixth country in the world and the first country in West Asia to gain the ability to produce the Coronavirus vaccine.

More effective than world-known vaccines

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

The study was performed on 1.8 million people in Fars province from the beginning of the vaccination process till October 2021, which considered four vaccines of Sinopharm, AstraZeneca, COVIRAN, and Sputnik, Younes Panahi, the deputy minister of health for research and technology, said in March.

COVIRAN vaccine was 87 percent effective in protecting against coronavirus infection and 86 percent effective against Covid-related hospitalization, compared with 84 percent and 82 percent, respectively for AstraZeneca. Sinopharm came in third with 80 percent and 72 percent, respectively.

FB/MG