Head of Food & Drug Org.: Iran ends Covid vaccine imports

Bahram Daraei said Iranian-made jabs will be sufficient to administer the booster shots to people in Iran. He added that Iranian vaccine producers are going to deliver 15 million doses per month.

Regarding the approval of domestic vaccines in international forums, the head of the Food and Drug Organization said in order to receive international approvals, a series of practical documents based on the documentations of international forums such as the World Health Organization must be prepared.

Daraei noted that these documents have been submitted and that Iran has made good progress in production of Barakat vaccine.

He however noted that reviewing scientific evidence takes time, expressing hope domestic vaccines will receive international approvals.

In response to a question about how much currency domestic vaccine production saves, he said, “If we wanted to supply the vaccine only from abroad, we would need $4 billion to $5 billion a year in foreign exchange. With the efforts of our scientists, our need for imports has been eliminated and the president’s emphasis is on supporting domestic production”.