COVIRAN wraps up first human trial phase, proves safe
Yusef Jalali
Press TV, Tehran
As the coronavirus resurges in Iran, domestic biotech firms are in a race against time to get a vaccine to the market. Among the eight viable candidates, COVIRAN is now ahead in the race.
Produced by the Headquarters for executing Imam Khomeini's Order, the vaccine started its first phase of the human trials in December last year, and now its developers say, the first step was a success.
In the second phase of the trials, 400 volunteers will get the jabs. This time, the aim is to assess how much immunity the vaccine will make against the virus.
While the UK variant of the coronavirus has reached Iran, experts say, the Iranian vaccine is effective against the mutated virus.
Earlier this month, Iran unveiled another homegrown vaccine dubbed COV-PARS, which is now undergoing the first phase of the human trials. Administered through injection and inhalation, COV-PARS is an mRNA recombinant vaccine that reconstructs a harmless piece of the virus’ spike protein.
This as the second batch of Russia's Sputnik V arrived in Iran last week amid an ongoing voluntary vaccination in the country.
Iran's government says it does not favor Iranian vaccines over foreign counterparts, and the priority is to start the nationwide vaccination campaign as soon as possible.
Now that the COVIRAN vaccine has proved safe for mass vaccination, the next step is to test its efficacy. Experts say this will be made clear in the second phase of the human trial which will kickstart in almost a month.
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