Iran kicks off human trials of its domestic vaccine

Yusef Jalali
Press TV, Tehran

Iran has started human trials of its domestically-developed coronavirus vaccine.

Produced by Iranian biotech firm Shifa Pharmed, the vaccine was tested on three volunteers during a ceremony attended by Iran’s health officials.

Sixty thousand people signed up to get the jab after a call for volunteers, issued by the Health Ministry.

Out of this number, 56 people were confirmed for the first stage of the human trials.

The approved volunteers will receive two shots within two weeks. The results will be announced roughly a month after the second shot.

The first person who received the vaccine was the daughter of this man, who is in charge of the project to develop a local vaccine.

He says this was meant to prove to all Iranians that the local vaccine is safe.

Iran is working on seven other local vaccines, each using a different technology for immunization against the virus. But none has so far cleared animal trials.

Coviran uses a coronavirus that is weakened or killed by chemicals, similar to how polio immunization works.

Leading Western vaccines, like Pfizer, use newer, less-proven technologies to target the coronavirus’ spike protein using RNA.

Iranian experts say their vaccine has an edge over its rivals in terms of its storage. Coviran does not need to be kept in ultra-low temperatures, an issue that Pfizer is grappling with.

Coviran will be tested on at least 10,000 volunteers before getting the approval of the Health Ministry to hit the market. Health officials expect that the process will take a few months.

Until then, Iranian authorities need to import foreign-made vaccines to inoculate their citizens, but US sanctions are a barrier.

The embargoes do not directly target Iran’s medical industry, but due to banking restrictions, the country cannot transfer money to any international medical firm that would sell its products to Iran.

Iranian experts say their concern about the sanctions have acted as a catalyst that helped catapult them to the human trial phase ahead of the predicted deadline.

Now with the Iranian vaccine at its human trial phase, hopes are revived that Iranians will no longer have to worry about the US barriers that prevent the nation from buying foreign vaccines.

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