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Head of Iran's Health Ministry Public Relations Office Kianoush Jahanpour told IRNA on Friday that Iran is weighing import of Bharat Biotech and Sinopharm vaccines respectively from India and China as Tehran’s attempt to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic.
He noted that the import of the vaccine to the country requires permission from the Food and Drug Administration; therefore, no vaccine would be purchased without such a permission.
The Russian Sputnik V has so far attained the license, he said, adding that some other companies have sent their documents to be evaluated by Drug and Biological Materials Qualification Commission of Iran Food and Drug Administration (IFDA).
China’s Sinopharm Company has sent most of its documents, and its vaccine needs to be approved by the IFDA, Jahanpour said, anticipating that one or two foreign-made vaccines would be allowed to be used in Iran.
A dose of the Sputnik V vaccine has been delivered to the laboratory of the IFDA to be examined in terms of its conformity to the provided documents, he mentioned.
The Sputnik V is the only vaccine, which has been authorized in Iran. The Islamic Republic signed an agreement with Russia’s Gamaleya Research Institute to import two million doses of the vaccine, which will be imported gradually.
The Ministry of Health and Medical Education of Iran has announced that 1.3 million Iranians will get shots of coronavirus vaccine until March 20.
Health staff, including personnel of ICU and then other healthcare workforce, are the first groups to get doses of the COVID-19 vaccine in Iran; old people and those who are suffering from underlying and incurable diseases are the next groups to get the shots.
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