Iran has started the third phase of the human trial of its second homegrown coronavirus vaccine, Razi Cov Pars.
Mohammad Hossein Fallah Mehrabadi, vice president for research and technology affairs at the parent Razi Vaccine and Serum Research Institute and spokesman for the project, said the phase will be carried out in Tehran and Alborz provinces with the participation of some 40,000 volunteers.
People aged 18 or older, who have not contracted the coronavirus, are eligible to take part in the trial, he said.
According to Fallah Mehrabadi, the Razi Vaccine and Serum Research Institute produced 400,000 doses of the vaccine last month. The minister hoped that his institute would manufacture another one million doses by next weekend.
“According to our estimates, we will be able to produce between 15 and 20 million doses [of Razi Cov Pars vaccine] by the end of the current year,” PressTV cited him as saying.
Razi Cov Pars is a recombinant protein subunit vaccine containing the COVID-19 spike protein. It reportedly tutors the immune system against the virus by producing antibodies.
The vaccine includes three doses. The first two doses are said to be injectable, whilst the third dose is intranasal.
The second dose of the vaccine will be injected into volunteers 21 after the first inoculation, and the third dose will be inhaled 51 days later.
