TEHRAN, Iran, July 27
Trend:
The head of Iran`s Pasteur Institute Alireza Biglari said that the results of the Iran-Cuba joint vaccine (PastoCoVac) will be analyzed by WHO in early September, Trend reports via Mehr News Agency.
"The PastoCoVac COVID-19 vaccine production that we started with Cuba is in third phase of the human trial,” Biglari said.
He said that the third phase of the clinical trial of the vaccine is underway in eight cities. It is going to be administrated to 24,000 people by August 20.
"We plan to submit the results to the World Health Organization," Biglari said, noting that the results of the third human trial phase would be analyzed in early September.
The head of the Pasteur Institute of Iran, expressed hope to obtain approval from the World Health Organization.
“The prior target group is to meet the needs of Iran and Cuba, and then we plan to supply other countries with this vaccine,” he said.
He went on to say that Iran's Pasteur Institute has always wanted to have an effective, efficient and safe vaccine with few side effects.
In previous weeks, 130,000 doses of vaccines produced in Iran and Cuba were delivered to the Ministry of Health and have been distributed in several provinces across the country, he noted.
In September, the set up of the production line with a capacity of 3 million doses will be completed.
Iran continues to monitor the coronavirus situation in the country. Reportedly, the disease was brought to Iran by a businessman from Iran's Qom city, who went on a business trip to China, despite official warnings. The man died later from the disease.
The Islamic Republic of Iran only announced its first infections and deaths from the coronavirus on Feb. 19. The pandemic hit a wide range of businesses in Iran since its outbreak in mid-February.
The outbreak in the Chinese city of Wuhan - which is an international transport hub - began at a fish market in late December 2019. The World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11 declared COVID-19 a pandemic. Some sources claim the coronavirus outbreak started as early as November 2019.