The third phase was started by injecting into IRGC Commander-in-Chief Major General Hossein Salami, IRNA reported.

Hassan Abolqasemi, commander of Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, said that 5 million doses of the vaccine have been produced, which will be available to the people after the approval of the Ministry of Health and the Food and Drug Administration.

The clinical trial process starts with the injection of 10,000 doses, he added.

Homegrown vaccines

Health Minister Bahram Einollahi has said five coronavirus vaccines have been so far produced domestically.

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.

Developed by the Razi Vaccine and Serum Research Institute, Razi Cov Pars is the second Iranian-made vaccine that started the clinical trial on February 27.

Fakhra vaccine, the third domestically-developed COVID-19 vaccine, was unveiled and started the clinical trial on March 16.

Lately, the Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use license for two other domestic vaccines of Razi Cov Pars and Fakhra.

Moreover, the Iranian-Australian Spikogen vaccine and Pastu Covac, developed jointly by the Pasteur Institute of Iran and Cuba’s Finlay Vaccine Institute, are other vaccines, which have received the emergency use license.

Iran is one of the few countries that has all vaccine production platforms, Mohammad Reza Shanehsaz, former head of the Food and Drug Administration, said in June 2021.

Meanwhile, World Health Organization (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.

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Currently, COVIRAN Barekat and Spikogen vaccines are produced in seven million doses per month, he stated, adding, Pastu Covac, Cov Pars, and Fakhra also produce about one million doses each and will increase production capacity in the coming months.

So far, more than 70 percent of Iranians have received the first dose and more than 47 percent have been fully vaccinated, he noted, highlighting that in the coming months, the trend of domestic production will accelerate.

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

Made by researchers at the Headquarters for Executing the Order of the Imam, COVIRAN Barekat is the first domestic vaccine that was unveiled on December 29, 2020, and received the license for public use on June 14.

Pastu Covac, developed jointly by the Pasteur Institute of Iran and Cuba’s Finlay Vaccine Institute, is another homegrown vaccine, which has received the emergency use license, after COVIRAN.

Lately, the Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use license for two other domestic vaccines of Razi Cov Pars and Fakhra.

Iran is one of the few countries that has all vaccine production platforms, Mohammad Reza Shanehsaz, former head of the Iranian Food and Drug Administration, said in June.

With the efforts of local experts, the 20-year path of vaccine development was completed in a few months, he highlighted.

In the field of vaccine production, great and unique steps were taken by the pharmaceutical industry, he noted, ISNA reported.

Meanwhile, World Health Organization (WHO) representative to Iran Jaffar Hussain said in September that the Organization was collecting the necessary information for the registration and certification of Iranian-made coronavirus vaccines.

“Despite the severity of the pandemic, Iran has been able to control the epidemic to an acceptable level by taking necessary measures,” he added.

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Following the correspondence, UNICEF would provide us with a million doses of vaccines to immunize foreign nationals residing in Iran, Karim Hemmati, head of IRCS said.

The Red Crescent will also consider different resources for vaccinating foreign nationals, he announced, IRNA reported on Tuesday.

The Red Crescent Society has imported 18 shipments of vaccines so far, and the last (18th) consignment, containing five million doses, was imported through Imam Khomeini Airport on Sunday.

UN appreciates Iran for vaccinating foreign nationals

On May 24, Indrika Ratwatte, Director of the Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said that Iran has generously considered refugees over the age of 75 for vaccination against coronavirus, appreciating Iran for over four decades of hosting refugees.

Iran hosting world’s fourth-largest refugee community

Iran is hosting the world’s fourth-largest refugee community. The country has generously hosted approximately 1 million refugees for the past 30 years. The majority, which mainly came from Afghanistan and Iraq, live in urban areas. Approximately 31,000 of the most vulnerable refugees living in 20 settlements located throughout the country.

Based on the latest statistics, over 3 million Afghans are living in Iran – some 780,000 Afghan refugees, over 2 million undocumented Afghans, and another 600,000 Afghan passport-holders with Iranian visas.

However, in light of the pandemic, all refugees, even those undocumented, benefited from access to free primary health services and free COVID-19 related testing, treatment, and hospitalization, just like Iranian nationals.

The same happened for the vaccination when the country has generously considered refugees over the age of 75 for vaccination against coronavirus.

In order to support the refugees living in the country, the seventh phase of the health insurance plan will cover 120,000 vulnerable refugees through a memorandum of understanding signed between the Health Insurance Organization and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

In Iran, UNHCR is seeking $16.2 million for its COVID-19 emergency, while requires an additional $98.7 million to support Iran in maintaining and sustaining its commendable inclusive refugee policies, under the umbrella of the Solutions Strategy for Afghan Refugees (SSAR).

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Speaking to ILNA and reacting to some rumors about the quality of the COVID-19 vaccines imported from China, Hariri said that major part of the imported vaccines has been from China and it has been more than 20m doses and all of them have been shipped from Beijing and the reliable sources at the Foreign Ministry have confirmed it.

On the allegations regarding the difference between the quality of Beijing or Wuhan-made Sinopharm vaccines, he said talking about the vaccine needs full knowledge and experts and the question is who has been the source of such fake news. He added that a company can produce its vaccine in different cities of a country like AstraZenca vaccine which is produced in different parts of the country and Moderna and Pfizer vaccines are the same.

He went on to say that he has no exact information whether Sinopharm Company has production lines in other cities or not but when a vaccine producing company has been able to produce some 3b doses of vaccines in less than one year, it has been done for sure in more than one production line.

Hariri noted that in China, this vaccine is used and the Chinese have had Sinopharm vaccine or  Sinomach vaccine which is another type of Sinopharm vaccines. He reiterated that Sinopharm vaccine has the WHO approval and most of the Persian Gulf states use the same vaccine and they have used it even long time before it enters Iran.

He added that naturally the quality of a production in different production line does not differ like other medicines and goods under one name or brand which are produced in different production lines.

He then blasted those media outlets which spread such baseless rumors while the foreign ministry as the responsible body for import of this vaccine has denied those allegations.

Hariri added that Sinopharm has announced the price of $27 for its vaccine but it may sell it with cheaper prices like what it did for Sri Lanka and Myanmar. He said Iran has so far received over 20m doses of COVID-19 vaccines from China, expressing hope the number of doses to hit 40m by next month as the talks are underway.

He once again said that Sinopharm is one of the four approved vaccines by the WHO in the market and we should not let some people to dishearten and frighten the people from vaccination.

Hariri criticized the official media for fanning the flame of such baseless claims and spreading this fake allegation which is politically motivated.

He said that now that the whole system in the country has been mobilize for the public vaccination, we should not let such allegations slow sown the process of vaccination in the society by creating panic over the quality of the vaccines.

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The statement on “COVID-19 Vaccination in Iran” by Dr. Jaffar Hussain, WHO Representative & Head of Mission to the Islamic Republic of Iran, reads: “As of 16 August 2021, 13.1% of the total population have received the first dose and 5.15% have received two doses. While delays in delivering sufficient doses of COVID-19 vaccines limited the capacity to increase coverage, it is encouraging to see an acceleration that started early August 2021, reaching priority groups and people in the age groups of the 40s and 30s in the worst-hit provinces of Iran.”

WHO is closely monitoring the situation of the COVID-19 pandemic in Iran. The Organization reiterates its commitment to support the country in responding to the pandemic.

WHO acknowledges greatly the increase in frequency of vaccination recently after deployment of international and locally-made vaccines. Based on the data shared by the Ministry of Health and Medical Education of the Islamic Republic of Iran, as of 20 August 2021, 21,805,879 doses of different vaccines have been administered in Iran. This includes utilization of 16,378,331 of those for the first dose and 5,427, 548 for 2nd dose of vaccination. This means thus far 19.3% of the whole population has received the first dose whereas 6.38% of the whole population is fully vaccinated which is a considerable change in a few days.  However, it is not enough for breaking the chain of viral transmission.

It is to be noted that the 8.5 million doses of COVAX allocation mentioned earlier are spanned to arrive over several months. The August to September consignment is approximately 3 million doses.

As part of its ongoing response to the pandemic in Iran, the World Health Organization continues to mobilize teams to provide information, recommendations, and technical guidance. WHO also continues to engage proactively with national counterparts to strengthen the health care system and raise awareness about the virus to counter its heavy economic and social burden.

One key measure taken in Iran is the COVID-19 Emergency Response Project (ICERP), financed by the World Bank and in cooperation with the Ministry of Health and Medical Education of Iran. The project delivered life-saving medical and diagnostic equipment to public hospitals and laboratories across the country to support the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Referring to good efforts made to import vaccines, he said: “By the end of September, we will definitely import about 30 million doses of vaccine. With another memorandum of understanding from October, we will receive another 30 million doses.

So, if we receive 60 million doses of vaccine, we can vaccinate the age group of 30 by the beginning of November.”

Referring to the domestic vaccine production, he noted that within the next 3 weeks, there will be a significant increase in vaccine production, reaching 10 to 15 million doses by the end of September.

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 18 million doses of foreign vaccines have already been imported and others are expected soon.

Iran is also producing vaccines jointly with two countries of Cuba 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.

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The announcement by the new president comes as the Covid-19 virus is taking heavy tolls in Iran.

“All public and private sectors, real and legal persons, and individuals must be coordinated and unanimous to control the spread of this dangerous virus,” Raisi stated.

The president said that in order to create this unanimity and coordination, people must be prepared for a comprehensive and decisive confrontation with the coronavirus.

Emphasizing the need to expedite the payment of overdue claims of medical staff and motivate them to continue the selfless activities of the “defenders of health,” Raisi said, “Payment of overdue salaries of medical staff should be one of the priorities of the Planning and Budget Organization. We must also recover and strengthen the medical staff of the universities, the Red Crescent, the armed forces, the volunteer and capable forces of the Basij, the seminarians and the general public volunteers, and we must not allow” the medical staff’s morale to be disrupted.

The president underlined that the next necessary and important step is to speed up the vaccination process.

He also announced the finalization of the import of 30 million doses of vaccine.

Raisi highlighted that it is not solely enough to draft and announce health protocols, adding that if an individual disobeys the protocols and cause people to get sick, he has violated their rights.

The president also stressed the need for stricter surveillance of border traffic and the prevention of illegal traffic, saying, “What has been done so far in this area is necessary, but insufficient, and compliance with health regulations must be closely and effectively monitored.”

Raisi considered planning to reduce visits to government organizations as other necessary measures and specified that all bodies or institutions, which are subject to public visits, must draft the necessary plans to reduce visits and provide services in cyberspace not just for these pandemic days, but for the long term, and providing virtual services is a government priority.

The president further referred to the issue of providing special medicines for Covid-19 patients, saying, “After visiting one of the pharmacies on Thursday, it was decided that in the coming days, the required medicines will be distributed between 100 pharmacies in the first phase and up to 300 pharmacies in the second phase in order to avoid queues and gatherings in several pharmacies.

Raisi put an emphasis on monitoring the distribution process in these pharmacies.

On August 11, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had called on officials to seriously fix the drug distribution system.

“Stop the disruption of the drug distribution network. Medicine must be made available to the public,” he highlighted.

The new president also mentioned strengthening and increasing the powers of the heads of provincial headquarters to deal with the coronavirus as one of the other decisions of the Saturday meeting.

“Every individual in the community should first consider himself the addressee of health guidelines and instructions,” the president emphasized.

He added that controlling the outbreak of the virus along with the dedicated efforts of the medical staff and public vaccination, require the determination and public cooperation of the people, institutions and agencies so that, God willing, there will be a serious reduction in the number of infected persons and fatalities.

In his August 11 televised address, the Leader suggested that containing the rapidly increasing wave of the Coronavirus is the first and foremost issue of the country.

Placing great emphasis on the fulfillment of duties and the implementation of decisions regarding the Coronavirus pandemic, Ayatollah Khamenei issued important pieces of advice to officials and the people.

“The vaccine, whether imported or domestically produced, must be provided with double effort and in any way possible made available to all people,” the Leader said.

“Fortunately, with the production of the domestic vaccine, its foreign import route is also paved, while before that, despite the payment for the vaccine, foreign sellers failed to fulfill their commitments,” the Leader said, urging officials to take importation and production of vaccine seriously.

The Leader asked the people to observe the health protocols, saying, “Exactly like in the first days of the Covid-19 pandemic, people must fully follow the instructions and guidelines.”

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Speaking in a cabinet meeting, Ebrahim Raisi said, “The situation and the victims of COVID-19 require that we do not delay the measures needed to contain the situation, even for an hour.”

“I call on the Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr Zarif to take the necessary measures to accelerate and increase the import of vaccines into the country, and the officials of the Ministry of Health and institutions such as the Red Crescent to do their utmost to expand and accelerate public vaccination,” he added.

The President called the management of coronavirus the most important issue in the country today and added, “Controlling the outbreak of coronavirus, which has intensified these days, requires the cooperation of all officials like all other acute problems.”

He stressed that if all the country’s capacities are not used to curb the outbreak of coronavirus, it will be difficult to get out of the current situation.

“Another very important point is to persuade public opinion to participate in helping the government in this regard,” he went on to say.

“We respect all the steps that have been taken so far to contain coronavirus, but we must work actively and in more effective ways to overcome the problem,” he said.

Raisi stressed that no one should exclude themselves from observing health protocols and that everyone should feel that they must first follow the instructions themselves.

“Another important point is to pay attention to the families and individuals who have been affected by the outbreak of coronavirus for any reason,” the president said, adding, “As the Supreme Leader emphasized, we must not allow this part of society to suffer any more.”

Raisi added that using positive methods to encourage people to follow the protocols is definitely a priority, adding, “Apart from this issue, measures should be taken so that those who harm the people and society by not following the instructions know that observing the protocols is a must.”

Meanwhile yesterday, President Raisi noted that there is no problem with allocating currency to import Corona vaccines and stressed that the import and production of domestic vaccines accelerated.

Raisi on Friday in a meeting of specialized committees of the National Task Force for Combating Coronavirus stressed the importance of people in observing health principles to control the Coronavirus, and said: “By complying fully with health guidelines and applying more controls and restrictions, we will have good conditions in controlling and overcoming this disease, and I call on the people to help the administration in this direction.”

Raisi called on the spokesperson of the National Task Force for Combating Corona, the Information Committee, and the IRIB to manage the information process so people can be informed about relevant news accurately, transparently and quickly through official sources.

Raisi emphasized that “There is enough medicine and the vaccination process will accelerate” and said: “There is no problem in allocating currency to the import of Corona vaccine and the import of vaccine has accelerated. At the same time production of domestic vaccine expanded.”

“Acceleration of vaccination is one of the priorities of the administration that the first vice president is seriously pursuing and we hope with imports in a short time, we will witness a large percentage of people get vaccinated,” President Raisi said.

Meanwhile Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Ground Force expressed his forces’ readiness to help the Iranian health society in the public vaccination program against the coronavirus.

In comments in Iran’s northeastern city of Mashhad on Thursday, Brigadier General Mohammad Pakpour said the IRGC Ground Force is ready to help and promote the coronavirus vaccination centers across Iran.

He also noted that the IRGC Ground Force has set up an operational headquarters after Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei ordered the mobilization of efforts by the military forces in the battle against the pandemic.

The general also said that the IRGC Ground Force’s stationary and mobile hospitals across the country have focused efforts on the treatment of the coronavirus patients.

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“I do not think we will easily eradicate Covid-19; at a minimum this could take 10-20 years as we would need to immunize the whole global population and develop new vaccines better able to block transmission and prevent infection entirely against all the variants – this is what our own vaccine is trying to achieve, but it is not going to be an easy task as the virus can keep mutating,” Petrovsky tells the Tehran Times.

The founder of Vaxine – a company funded by the national institutes of health to develop novel vaccine technologies – believes that “almost all the vaccine so far has just gone to a small number of the wealthiest countries, so this is definitely a concern.”

He adds, “Our company Vaxine Pty Ltd is trying to address by making our cutting-edge recombinant protein vaccine technology available to partners in developing world countries.”
Vaxine Pty Ltd is a biotechnology company. The company develops and manufactures therapeutic and prophylactic vaccines for the treatment of infectious diseases, allergies, autoimmunity, and cancer.

“The company we are working with Cinnagen and other partners to scale up manufacture of the vaccine to ensure we are ready to meet future demand which we expect to be very large,” Petrovsky states.

Following is the text of the interview:

Q: Could you update us about your collaboration with Iran’s Cinnagen for the Covid-19 vaccine?  Would you help the company to produce the vaccine locally?

A: Vaxine is committed to making its vaccine technology available to much of the globe as possible. Our strategic alliance with Cinnagen is the way in which we are helping to make our cutting-edge recombinant protein vaccine available to the people of Iran and regional countries.

We are similarly working with companies, governments and aid agencies to produce the vaccine locally in different parts of the world, thereby ensuring local vaccine self-sufficiency while at the same time ensuring the very best vaccine technology is available everywhere.

Q:  What are the main phases of vaccine manufacturing? 

A: Vaccine manufacturing does not have phases like clinical trials. Instead, it is a matter of scale – how many doses can be achieved with one batch. With the vaccine now in final Phase 3 clinical trial, we are working with Cinnagen and other partners to scale up manufacture of the vaccine to ensure we are ready to meet future demand which we expect to be very large.

Q:   Which companies or countries are involved in producing the vaccine? What are the advantages of the vaccine in comparison with others?

A: We are in confidential discussions with companies and governments in many countries around the world to implement our Covid-19 vaccine technology. We cannot mention exact names for commercial confidentiality reasons. Our vaccine is protein-based so it is very safe and has few side effects. In animals, it has shown potent protection and has even been shown to block virus transmission, which is very exciting.

Q: Once in a while the world is hearing with great fears reports of new variants of Covid-19. Can the world eradicate this virus totally? How long does it take to do so?

A: I do not think we will easily eradicate Covid-19; at a minimum, this could take 10-20 years as we would need to immunize the whole global population and develop new vaccines better able to block transmission and prevent infection entirely against all the variants – this is what our own vaccine is trying to achieve, but it is not going to be an easy task as the virus can keep mutating.

Q:  Some critics are talking about systematic discrimination in the distribution of the Coronavirus vaccine. How do you assess international cooperation in transferring vaccine to developing countries?

A: Almost all the vaccine so far has just gone to a small number of the wealthiest countries, so this is definitely a concern; our company Vaxine Pty Ltd is trying to address by making our cutting-edge recombinant protein vaccine technology available to partners in developing world countries.

Q:  What is your analysis about the origin of Coronavirus? Basically, are the claims about the origins of the virus provable? 

A: Despite being over a year and a half since the start of the pandemic, the world still does not know how this pandemic started, whether as a chance cross-over event from an animal host to humans as in previous pandemics, or as a laboratory leak. Definite evidence to rule in or out either of these possibilities has not been found, so either option remains possible.

Most importantly, this pandemic has exposed the need for much greater international cooperation on a truly global basis to better manage and ideally prevent any future pandemic. Citizens of all countries suffer greatly from any pandemic so it is important that political considerations are put aside in identifying better strategies to prevent future pandemics.

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“The central bank, in cooperation with the country’s banking system, has provided the foreign currency needed to import Covid-19 vaccines and there is no problem in this regard,” Akbar Komeijani said.

Komeijani stressed that despite all the problems, providing the foreign currency needed for the coronavirus vaccine has been and is one of the priorities of the country’s banking system.

He further noted that the vaccination of all employees of the country’s banks is being carried out vigorously, adding: “The necessary arrangements for injecting the second dose of the vaccine have already been made for next month.”

In late July, Iran received two consignments of Sputnik V and AstraZeneca vaccines supplied by Russia and Japan, respectively.

The first batch of vaccines supplied by Japan had been imported on July 23.

Toshimitsu Motegi, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan, announced on July 13 that the Japanese government will donate 2.9 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Iran through the COVAX facility.

Iran has also received two batches of vaccines from the COVAX facility. The first shipment included over 700,000 doses of Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured by South Korean firm SK Bioscience, and the second one consisted of 1,452,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured by Catalent Anagni of Italy.

The Islamic Republic is currently producing vaccines jointly with three countries of Cuba, Russia, and Australia, which may also be released by September, while two homegrown vaccines have so far received the emergency use license.

COVIRAN BAREKAT, the first coronavirus vaccine made by researchers at the Headquarters for Executing the Order of the Imam which was unveiled on December 29, 2020, started to be mass-produced on March 29.

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