TEHRAN – Iranian authorities have approved the emergency use of the first locally developed coronavirus vaccine although phase III clinical trials have yet to be concluded, the health ministry announced on Monday.
The jab, dubbed COVIRAN Barekat, will be administered “from next week,” Health Minister Saeed Namaki said, adding that it was authorized after “a reasonable time” of phase three trials had passed. The finals stage of testing began on April 25.
The vaccine can cause rare and minor side effects but it is effective against the different variants of the coronavirus, according to researchers of Execution of the Order of Imam Khomeini, the government body that has developed the jab.
COVIRAN Barekat will help speed up a rollout that has been struggling with a shortage of doses of the Sputnik V, Sinopharm and AstraZeneca vaccines.
A total of 4,354,445 people have received the first dose of the coronavirus vaccine, while 850,000 have been fully immunized in a country of over 80 million inhabitants.
The Iranian Health Ministry says the country has been authorized to start emergency use of its first domestically-produced COVID-19 vaccine, known as COVIran Barekat.
Namaki also said the permit for using the Pasteur vaccine — which has been jointly developed by Iran and Cuba — will be issued next week.
“The permit for using the Pasteur vaccine will be issued next week, and in the near future, the Razi and Fakhra vaccines will be added to the list of usable vaccines,” he said.
The Razi vaccine, officially known as Razi COV-Pars, is Iran’s second homegrown vaccine and a product of the Razi Vaccine and Serum Research Institute, which is administered via injection and inhalation.
Fakhra, the third Iranian vaccine, is developed by the Iranian defense ministry’s research center, formerly headed by nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who was assassinated in a suspected Israeli-linked terror attack late last year.
“Considering the capacity created inside the country, the entire target population of Iran will be vaccinated by the end of coming fall,” the minister said, adding that the infrastructure for domestic vaccine production has been designed in such a way that the process is independent of any particular individual.
“I proudly announce that Iranian vaccines enjoy the lowest rate of side effects and are the most effective and safest vaccines in the world,” the health minister added.
In addition to producing domestic vaccines, Iran has imported reliable foreign vaccines from Russia, China, India and Cuba amid the illegal U.S. sanctions that have seriously hampered the country’s fight against the coronavirus pandemic.