Iran talks joint production of Pasteurcovac vaccine wit Cuba

By Trend

Head of Center for Communicable Diseases Control of Iran's Health Ministry Mohammad Mahdi Gouya said the Pasteurcovac vaccine is jointly being produced by Iran and Cuba, Trend reports citing IRNA.

“The clinical trial was completed in the past two months in the country and the results were provided to the Food and Drug Administration, which has approved it," he noted.

Following the country`s FDA approval, he said that the vaccine will be mass-produced in the country.

He expressed hope that the Pasteurcovac vaccine will reach mass production by mid-October.

Iran is currently battling its fifth wave of COVID-19. Official figures suggest that more than 4.3 million people have been infected and 100,000 have died since the pandemic began, but the true toll is potentially much higher.

Pasteurcovac is a recombinant-protein vaccine developed in a collaboration between Cuba’s Finlay Institute of Vaccines in Havana and the Pasteur Institute of Iran. The vaccine is known as Soberana 02 in Cuba. It also received emergency-use approval in Iran in June, despite still being at the phase III trials.

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.