Iran Mulling Import of Indian, Chinese COVID-19 Vaccines

Iran has been considering the import of coronavirus vaccines from India and China, a health ministry official said, adding that the import and co-production of Russian Sputnik V inside the county by the end of the Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2021) has also been taken into account. Spokesman of the Food and Drug Organization (FDO) Kianoush Jahanpour said on Friday that Iran has considered import of Bharat Biotech and Sinopharm vaccines from India and China respectively as Tehran’s endeavor to fight the disease. China’s Sinopharm Company has sent most of its documents, and its vaccine needs to be approved by the IFDA, he said, adding that one or two foreign-made vaccines might be allowed to be used in Iran.

Iran took delivery of the first batch of Sputnik-V vaccines from Russia on Thursday February 4. Iran in a parallel move to imports of vaccine is trying to produce home-made vaccine to fight against coronavirus.

Chairman of the Headquarters for Executing Imam Khomeini’s Order (HEIKO) Mohammad Mokhber underlined the capability of the Iran-made vaccine to deactivate the new British coronavirus, saying that the country hopes that the vaccine can also resist against other types of COVID-19 virus mutations.

“The Iranian vaccine has shown very excellent performance against the mutated coronavirus spreading in Britain and we hope that the Iran-made vaccine will succeed in confronting the future mutations of the coronavirus too,” Mokhber said earlier this month. He added that infrastructures and facilities have been prepared to mass-produce the Iran-made coronavirus vaccine, adding that the country will be ready to produce 12mln to 14mln doses of the vaccine in mid spring. Mokhber said that a number of world states have demanded to purchase the Iran-made vaccine, stressing that the Iranian citizens are a priority to receive the vaccine.

In relevant remarks on February 11, Iranian Health Minister Saeed Namaki said that the country will become an important hub for production and exports of coronavirus vaccine in two to three months. "Iran will turn into one of the very important hubs for production of coronavirus vaccine in the region in the next two or three months and we will be one of the exporters of the vaccine in the world," Namaki said. He added that after the coronavirus outbreak in Iran, the country has been able to add 2,500 new ICU beds to the hospitals. Namaki had said on Sunday that his country will in the near future produce the best vaccines in the world, including the coronavirus vaccine. “Iran will turn into an important vaccine production hub in the world in the next few months. We will produce the best vaccines in the world in the very near future,” Namaki said, addressing a ceremony to unveil the country’ first injectable-inhaled vaccine of Covid-19 recombinant protein produced at Razi institute.

He underlined Iran’s preparedness to produce new recombonent vaccines. Namaki added that Iran will begin COVID-19 vaccination by using imported vaccines on Tuesday. The top priority groups of people for vaccination are doctors and nurses working at intensive care units of the hospitals, the minister said.  Namaki said that Iran has chosen and imported one of the least harmful and less dangerous vaccines after assessing the most credible vaccines available. Iran insisted from the very beginning that it imports a vaccine only if it has already undertaken the third phase of its human trial, the minister said. Iran has also provided some 16.8 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine from COVAX for vaccination of 8.4 million people, he said, noting that more vaccines are still needed to be imported. - Fars