The mass production of COVIran Barekat, named after the pharmaceutical group that developed it, has begun in the first phase of a factory constructed by the Headquarters for Executing the Order of Imam Khomeini.
The first large consignment of the Iranian vaccine, comprising 300,000 doses, has been delivered to the Health Ministry.
Director of the headquarters’ information department Hojjat Niki Maleki said one million doses of COVIran Barekat will be produced by May 21.
According to the administration’s high representative in Alborz Province, where the vaccine factory is located, arounds 10 million doses of COVIran Barekat would be supplied by June.
The COVIran vaccine has gone into three stages of clinical trials, the last of which involved 20,000 people in the cities of Tehran, Bushehr, Shiraz, Karaj, Mashhad and Isfahan.
Iran has already granted emergency use authorization to Russian-made Sputnik V vaccine, Covaxin made by India’s Bharat Biotech, Oxford/AstraZeneca developed by Russia’s R-Pharm Group, and the AstraZeneca-SKBio made in South Korea.
On Sunday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani unveiled plans to vaccinate 13 million high-risk people eligible for the coronavirus vaccine by July 22.