TEHRAN – Pharmaceutical companies from two Arab countries have officially put in a request for buying the Iranian-made COVIRAN BAREKAT vaccine.

“God willing, after successfully passing the clinical trial, the issue of exporting the vaccine will be studied, only and if only it fully meets the domestic market’s needs,” Hojjat Niki-Maleki, head of the information center of Headquarters for Executing the Order of the Imam, which is in charge of developing the vaccine, wrote on his Twitter account on Sunday.

However, Niki-Maleki did not provide any further information on the countries.

On January 10, IRIB reported that the Swiss health ministry was negotiating with twenty countries, including Iran, to buy the coronavirus vaccine, and has established ‘special contacts’ in this regard.

“We have good relations with the Iranian health sector. Health institutions in Iran are well organized and fully equipped for clinical trials and data sets,” Nora Kronig, Vice-Director General of the Federal Office of Public Health of Switzerland, said.

Five Iranian institutions are on the list of the World Health Organization’s candidates for the vaccine, she noted.

The Iranian Food and Drug Administration spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said on January 10 that production of COVID-19 vaccine is being followed by 16 Iranian companies since the beginning of the outbreak, and so far 12 companies applied to produce the vaccine, 8 of which are operating, one of the companies have entered the human trial phase, and two more companies will soon test the vaccines on human.

COVIRAN BAREKAT, the first coronavirus vaccine made by Iranian researchers of the Headquarters for Executing the Order of the Imam, was unveiled and injected into three volunteers during a ceremony on December 29, 2020.

Mohammad Mokhber, the head of the Headquarters for Executing the Order of the Imam said on January 19 that over the next month, 2-4 million doses of vaccine will be produced monthly, which will soon reach up to 4-24 million doses.

MG