influenza vaccine Archives - Iran News Daily

Iran breaks U.S. monopoly on recombinant flu vaccine

mahla — Wed, 21 Apr 2021 11:10:41 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – An Iranian knowledge-based company has acquired the technology to produce a recombinant human influenza vaccine, which was monopolized by the United States, IRNA reported on Tuesday.

“Recombinant influenza vaccines are produced using recombinant technology. This method does not require an egg-grown vaccine virus and does not use chicken eggs in the production process.

Currently, the recombinant flu vaccine and the cell culture-based flu vaccine are the only egg-free flu vaccines licensed for use in the United States,” Amir Hossein Abdolghaffari, CEO of a knowledge-based company active in the health sector stated.

“As the second producer of recombinant seasonal influenza vaccine in the world, we were able to acquire the technical knowledge to develop the vaccine with the help of experts,” he highlighted.

In previous years, the domestic need was 3 and 3.5 million doses, but due to coronavirus pandemic, the flu vaccine is needed more than before, he said, expressing hope that the vaccine to hit the market by September.

In fact, due to the U.S. sanctions and import limitations, we often have problems in supplying vaccines. Relying on the previous knowledge of our technical team over the past 6 years, we started the production process of the recombinant influenza vaccine in December 2018.

So far, the vaccine has been injected into about 430 people, which has had satisfactory results, he also said.

At present, other flu vaccines cost 7 to 9 Euros to import, so that, 2 to 3 million doses of the vaccine costs us 18-27 million Euros, which with the domestic production, will be reduced to at least one third, he emphasized.

According to IRNA, the first seasonal flu vaccine was unveiled on April 8. In addition, the vaccine is made in accordance with the standards of the World Health Organization, the Food and Drugs Administration, and the Ministry of Health.

In October 2020, the Ministry of Health implemented a national plan to provide two million doses of influenza vaccines for at-risk groups such as the elderly, transplant patients, cardiopulmonary patients, and pregnant women to reduce COVID-19 effects.

According to the national plan on influenza vaccination, up to 80,000 people who are supported by the welfare organization have received free vaccines.

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Flu epidemic claims lives in Iran

reporter 1222 — Tue, 03 Dec 2019 05:30:26 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – A senior Iranian Health Ministry official said that an ongoing flu epidemic has claimed the lives of 56 people since its outbreak more than a couple of months ago.

“Due to influenza, 273 individuals have been hospitalized and 19 have lost their lives” in the past week alone, said Alireza Raisi, the deputy health minister as reported by Press TV.

The health deputy added that all of the disease’s victims have so far been among aged individuals or people who had been suffering from underlying disorders.

“As the Health Ministry had previously announced, not all individuals need to be vaccinated for the disease and only people with underlying disorders such as diabetes, lung disease, and pregnant women are advised to do so,” Raisi said.

“This wave will continue for another two weeks during which it may even become more widespread, but it will diminish afterward,” he added.

According to Iranian health officials, two different strains of flu, H1N1 and H3N2, are currently spreading across the country in an epidemic which has appeared two weeks earlier than the annual flu season.

Mohammad Mehdi Gouya, head of the Iranian Health Ministry’s center for infectious diseases, says that his ministry has been preparing for the outbreak and has stockpiled needed medical and specifically vaccine supplies to deal with the outbreak.

Davoud Yadegari, a medical expert in Tehran’s Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, says deaths related to influenza happen regularly every year in the country.

He added, however, that “it seems deaths are higher this year due to different reasons such as genetic mutations in the virus and an early decrease in temperature”.

In 2009, a major swine flu pandemic affected major parts of the world and lead to the death of what researchers say may have led to the death of as much as half a million people worldwide.

The World Health Organization declared the end of the epidemic in late 2010.

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Iran to produce influenza vaccine

reporter 1222 — Mon, 30 Jul 2018 12:15:33 +0000

Deputy Health Minister Alireza Raeisi said that influenza vaccine will be produced domestically by next year.The required vaccines for 1.5 million babies per year have been supplied, Raeisi told the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) adding there is no problem in this case.

Regardless of the sanctions, ‘we are to make vaccines’ inside the country, he said.

Some knowledge-based companies have so far expressed readiness for transferring technology and making vaccine, he added.

If we need 200,000 doses of influenza vaccine per year, we can produce 50,000 ones inside the country, Raeisi noted.

Iran is now spending 5-7 million dollars for supplying vaccine for 1.5 million babies, he added.

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