Iran and Cuba, both under current U.S. sanctions have decided to work cooperatively to develop their own coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine, reports xinhuanet.com. An Iranian Health Ministry official revealed that the country is cooperating with Cuba in development of a COVID-19 vaccine. Kianoush Jahanpour, a spokesman for Iran’s Food and Drug Administration (IFDA) said Iran’s Pasteur Institute is jointly cooperating with a Cuban company.
The Cuban vaccine is the most advanced of Cuba’s four vaccine candidates and will be developed in cooperation between Cuba’s Finlay Vaccine Institute according to The Wall Street Journal. The Tehran-Havana COVID-19 vaccine is called Soberana. In Spanish, it stands for “sovereign”. Trials and testing of the vaccine are currently underway in Cuba. Iranian researchers began human trials of the Soberana vaccine on December 29, 2020 according to xinhuanet.com. Initial testing began with 56 volunteers who received an injection of the Soberana COVID-19 vaccine regimen.
Alireza Raisi, Iran’s Deputy Health Minister anticipates that the next phase of trials would begin 28 days after testing of the initial injections “if everything goes well”. If the vaccine goes through each and every stage successfully, it would be considered reliable. At that point Iran can mass produce its own COVID-19 vaccine in the spring. Currently Iran is a participant in the World Health Organization’s COVAX program for receiving its vaccine quota, reports xinhuanet.com
According to The Wall Street Journal, Iranians are experiencing one of the worst coronavirus (COVID-19) infection rates in the Middle East. Evenso, Iran refuses to rely on the West for providing them with a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine. The country has pledged it will not use a COVID-19 vaccine developed by the U.S. and Britain.
