Iranian-Cuban COVID-19 Vaccine to Undergo Phase 3 of Human Trial

Iran’s Coronavirus Headquarters says the phase three of the human trial of a COVID-19 vaccine jointly developed by the Pasteur Institute of Iran and Cuba will get underway in three weeks’ time.
Some 50,000 people will receive the jab in this phase, said Alireza Raisi, the spokesman for the headquarters. “Between two and four million doses of the vaccine will be produced by April 2021, and this is the first Iranian [coronavirus] vaccine administered,” he said on Sunday. He noted that the vaccination will take place in accordance with the priorities set by the Coronavirus Headquarters.
Raisi said the elderly, the disabled and medical personnel are among the first to be inoculated.

Earlier in the day, Iran’s Razi Vaccine and Serum Research Institute started the first phase of the human trial of Iran’s second homegrown COVID-19 vaccine after successfully completing the initial steps. The vaccine, produced by Iranian experts at the Razi Institute, is the first injectable-inhaled mRNA recombinant vaccine for coronavirus.

Razi COV-Pars was administered to two volunteers at a ceremony in Tehran attended by Agriculture Minister Kazem Khavazi and a number of other officials at Tehran’s Rasoul Akram Hospital.
A total of 133 people will get two shots 21 days apart in the first clinical trial of the vaccine. On Day 51, the booster (inhaler) is administered in the form of an intranasal spray, according to the Razi Institute. Iranian scientists had earlier unveiled another domestic vaccine, named COVIran Barekat, which is undergoing clinical trials. - IFP