Iran plans to start the mass production of Russia’s Sputnik V anti-coronavirus vaccines but will use a variety of vaccines, including Indian and Chinese ones.
Iranian president's chief of staff, Mahmoud Vaezi said on Friday that a variety of vaccines ranging from the WHO-affiliate COVAX vaccines to Russian, Indian and Chinese vaccines as well as domestic vaccines will be ready for nationwide distribution in the near future.
He stated that the priority is to start the vaccination campaigns as soon as possible, noting that the administration does not favor any specific domestic or foreign producers for the vaccines.
Iranian Ambassador to Russia Kazem Jalali said earlier that Tehran and Moscow had reached an agreement on joint production of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine. They had already signed an agreement on supplies of the Russian vaccine to Iran.
The first batch of Sputnik-V arrived at Iran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport on February 4. The second was delivered on February 12.
Sputnik V is developed by the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, and was registered on 11 August 2020 by the Russian Ministry of Health as Gam-COVID-Vac.
According to a study on its interim analysis, published in The Lancet in early February, it has 91.6% efficacy without any unusual side effects.
Iran also signed an agreement with Cuba last month to cooperate in the production of a vaccine called Soberana 2, which is now undergoing the human phase trials by the Cuban Finlay Institute and the Pasteur Institute of Iran.
Iran has also undertaken major efforts – in the midst of US sanctions – to develop two homegrown vaccines called Coviran Barekat and Razi COV-Pars, which were produced by the Headquarters for Executing the Order of Imam Khomeini and the Razi Vaccine and Serum Research Institute respectively.