Iran’s SETAD has taken delivery of a second batch of equipment needed for mass production for its Coviran Barekat coronavirus vaccine as the industrial conglomerate plans to scale up manufacturing to 25 million doses per month.
The Iranian customs office IRICA said that it had cleared a large consignment of machinery and equipment imported by SETAD for installation at its vaccine manufacturing plant located near the capital Tehran.
IRICA officials said that the cargo had been bought from suppliers in China.
The first batch of vaccine manufacturing equipment imported on Saturday had consisted of machines and parts used in automated vial washing processes as well as equipment deployed at cleanrooms.
Coviran Barekat is Iran’s top vaccine candidate to immunize the country’s population against the coronavirus pandemic. The jab developed by Iranian scientists started its third and final phase of clinical trials over the weekend.
SETAD’s chief Mohammad Mokhber said on Sunday that some one million doses of the vaccine would be available for public injections by the end of the current calendar month to April 21.
Mokhber said production would scale up to over three million doses next month before it jumps to above 10 million doses per month in early summer.