Phase 2/3 Clinical Trials of Iranian Vaccine Begins

Date: 15 March 2021 - 21:13

News ID: ۸۸۶۰۳

TEHRAN (Dispatches) -- An Iranian health official said Monday the latest studies carried out on Iran’s Coviran Barekat coronavirus vaccine show its effectiveness of 90 percent after volunteers received a 5-microgram dose.
Hamed Husseini, the official in charge of the University of Tehran’s Clinical Trials Center, made the announcement in an interview after the second and third phases of clinical studies on the Iranian vaccine officially began.
"Today, 2 volunteers were vaccinated and phases 2 and 3 of the clinical studies on Coviran Barekat started. According to the first-phase studies, the effectiveness of the vaccine in people receiving a 5-microgram dose stands at 90 percent,” Husseini said.
He noted that through the permission of Iranian Food and Drug Organization, the second and third phases of human trials of the Iranian COVID-19 vaccine will be carried out simultaneously.
Iran in late December began the first phase in the human trial of the homegrown COVID-19 vaccine after successfully completing the initial steps, including tests on animals, and obtaining necessary approvals.
The vaccine, produced by Iranian experts at the Headquarters for Executing the Order of Imam Khomeini, was administered to three volunteers at a ceremony in Tehran, the first of them being Tayyebeh Mokhber, the daughter of the organization’s CEO Muhammad Mokhber.
It is dubbed Coviran Barekat after the pharmaceutical group that developed the vaccine against the coronavirus pandemic.
A total of 56 volunteers would receive two shots administered 14 days apart in the first human trial of the Iranian vaccine and the results will be announced 28 days later.
The vaccine is of the inactivated type, which is made of a virus that is weakened or killed by chemicals.
Iran will unveil a new COVID-19 vaccine developed by the Defense Ministry on Tuesday, when it will go on its human trials to become the fourth domestic vaccine developed in Iran.
"Sepand vaccine, developed by Iran’s Defense Ministry, will be unveiled on Tuesday and its human trial will immediately start,” Health Minister Saeid Namaki said on Sunday.
Namaki said Iran will enjoy a well-deserved international recognition in producing vaccines against the coronavirus in the coming months.
"Sepand vaccine is the same vaccine whose production was initiated by Martyr [Mohsen] Fakhrizadeh and his team a long time ago in the Defense Ministry, and now, it has reached its human trials stage,” he said.
Fakhrizadeh, the head of the Iranian Defense Ministry’s Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research, was targeted in a multi-pronged terrorist attack near Tehran on November 27, 2020.
In addition to Sepand and Coviran Barekat, Iran has produced Razi COV-Pars vaccine developed by the Razi Vaccine and Serum Research Institute, and Soberana 2 vaccine which is the result of the cooperation of Cuba’s Finlay Vaccine Institute and Iran’s Pasteur Institute.
According to Alireza Raeisi, the spokesman for the National Headquarters for Managing and Fighting the Coronavirus, 1.26 million vaccines have been imported to Iran so far, with the aim of vaccinating more than one million people, including the medical staff and vulnerable individuals, before the beginning of the Iranian new year on March 21.
"So far, we have received more than 410,000 does of Russia’s Sputnik-V vaccine,” Raeisi said. "Also, 250,000 doses of China’s Sinopharm vaccine and 125,000 doses of India’s Bharat vaccine have been imported into the country, with another 375,000 doses [of Bharat vaccine] expected to receive on Monday, when we will have a total of 500,000 doses of the Indian vaccine.”
Raeisi added that 100,000 doses of the Cuban vaccine have been imported into the country, with the total doses of the imported vaccines reaching one million and 260,000.
Iran has set a target of providing vaccinations to 56 million to reach herd immunity against the coronavirus pandemic, according to the head of Iranian health ministry information center Kianoush Jahanpour.
"Iran should inoculate 56 million people to reach herd immunity,” said Jahanpour on Sunday.