Iran relies on its vaccines to be self-sufficient and a regional producer

Iran is exploring all avenues to achieve an effective vaccine against COVID-19 with the aim of becoming a regional producer in the near future and immunising its population without being overly dependent on foreign drugs.

"It was not clear which strategy could eventually lead to an effective and safe vaccine against COVID-19, so practically no opportunity was missed and any route or platform whose technique existed in the country was explored," said Kianush Yahanpur, head of Public Relations at Iran's Ministry of Health, in an interview with Efe.

For now, local candidates CovIran Barekat, which is in the first phase of clinical trials, and Razi Cov Pars, which has just received permission to begin human testing, stand out, as well as a joint vaccine project with Cuba.

In his office at the Ministry of Health, he stressed that they have supported the research projects of the various local companies in order to have a better chance of success and to use this period to make "a historic turn" and "a leap" in vaccine production.

"The determined goal is for Iran to position itself as the concentrator of vaccine production at least in the Eastern Mediterranean and Western Asia region," he stressed, referring to the geographical area stretching from Azerbaijan to Yemen and from Turkey to Afghanistan.

To this end, Iran, where more than 57,000 deaths and 1.4 million infections of the new coronavirus have so far been reported, has nine candidates covering different techniques such as inactivated virus, protein subunit, viral vector or mRNA.

CovIran Barekat started its clinical trials last 29 December. This inactivated virus vaccine, like Sinopharm's Chinese vaccine, has been injected into 21 volunteers, 14 more have been approved for inoculation, and another 21 will be inoculated next week, completing the first phase.

According to Yahanpur, evidence from animal studies and, above all, in those first 21 people indicates that this candidate has "even compared to other vaccines of similar formulation, very good immunogenicity". 

"It is a vaccine with few side effects, safe and effective, and we are very hopeful that it will be available in the country in mass production next spring," said the head of public relations at Iran's Ministry of Health.

Meanwhile, Razi Cov Pars, a recombinant protein subunit vaccine, will begin testing in "the next few days" on several dozen volunteers.

In the fight against covid-19, Iran has joined forces with Cuba, a political ally that also suffers from US sanctions and with which cooperation in biotechnology has been commonplace for three decades.

The Finlay Institute's potential Cuban vaccine Soberana 02, which combines virus antigen and tetanus toxoid, is in the second phase of clinical trials on the Caribbean island. To finalise the process, it needed to be tested in a country with a higher prevalence of covid-19, and Iran was chosen.

"The second phase of clinical trials is being carried out with the monitoring, supervision and participation of the Pasteur Institute in Iran, and the third phase will be conducted jointly in Cuba and Iran," Yahanpur said.

The Iranian health official insisted that "considering the transfer of technology and the fact that the production platform has been moved to the country, in practice the production will be internal".

The third phase of the trials will start in mid- to late February and run until April, involving 150,000 volunteers in Cuba and 50,000 in Iran.

"Its clinical studies have been successful in the first and second phases and I say with determination that compared to many vaccines produced in the West, 50 miles from Cuba, in the US, it is safer," he said.

Sanctions and difficulties in purchasing foreign vaccines have motivated Iranian development: "It prevented us from accessing the vaccine in time, but we are not tied hand and foot," Yahanpur said.

The first vaccines will arrive in the country in February. Since Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has banned the purchase of US vaccines, they will import Russia's Sputnik V, which has already been approved for emergency use, China's Sinopharm and AstraZeneca's drug produced in India or Russia, among others.

In a country of more than 80 million people, they hope to achieve "herd immunity" by the end of 2021 or early 2022, according to the health ministry. 

Vaccination will start first with one million directly purchased doses for at-risk groups (frontline health workers and the elderly) and, in a second phase, with 16,600,000 doses purchased through the Covax platform. After that, they expect to use their own vaccines.

Yahanpur said that the joint vaccine with Cuba will be the first to reach the market and they will initially produce between 2 and 2.7 million doses per month, as well as the candidate Razi Cov Pars; while CovIran Barekat, once the permits are obtained in the spring, will produce 10 million doses per month.

"We estimate that from early summer we will no longer need the foreign ones and, in practice, we will fully advance vaccination with the Iranian vaccine until its completion," the Health Ministry official proudly stated.