Iran joins global program to pre-purchase Coronavirus vaccine
TEHRAN, Iran, Oct. 19
Trend:
Director-General of Drugs and Controlled Substances of Iran Health Ministry announced that Iran has joined the global program of pre-purchase and equitable distribution of the Covid-19 vaccine called "Covax".
"The Ministry of Health has signed a letter to join the fair distribution program of Coronavirus vaccine and has officially become a member of the global program,” Director-General of Drugs and Controlled Substances of Health Ministry, Heidar Mohammadi said, Trend reports citing IRNA.
"Considering Iran's joint to the global Covax program, whenever the coronavirus vaccine is produced in the world, Iran also receives its quota,” he said adding that he does not know whether Iran has paid money to join this program or not.
Earlier, Alireza Raeisi, Deputy Minister of Health, said that "With the agreement reached between Iran and the World Health Organization, this organization will give Iran enough time to pay the prepayment for the purchase of the vaccine and membership in Covax.
Currently, 172 economies are engaged in discussions to potentially participate in COVAX, a global initiative aimed at working with vaccine manufacturers to provide countries worldwide equitable access to safe and effective vaccines, once they are licensed and approved. COVAX currently has the world’s largest and most diverse COVID-19 vaccine portfolio - including nine candidate vaccines, with a further nine under evaluation and conversations underway with other major producers.
COVAX, the vaccines pillar of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, is co-led by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and the World Health Organization (WHO) – working in partnership with developed and developing country vaccine manufacturers. It is the only global initiative that is working with governments and manufacturers to ensure COVID-19 vaccines are available worldwide to both higher-income and lower-income countries.
In order to be able to secure enough doses of vaccines to protect the most vulnerable populations, such as health workers and the elderly, the next step for the partnership is to confirm potential self-financing participants’ intent to participate by 31 August and to turn these into binding commitments to join the COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access Facility (COVAX Facility) by 18 September, with first upfront payments to follow thereafter, and no later than 9 October 2020.
