Iran Launches 2nd & 3rd Phase of Clinical Trials for Coronavirus Vaccine

Iran launched on Monday the second and third phase of human trials for its Covid-19 vaccine, CoV Iran Barkat, aiming to accelerate the process by combining the last two stages of testing.
“We’ll be testing the vaccine on 20,000 people in the third phase, administering the injection to two groups to estimate its efficacy,” head of the team behind the clinical trials, Hamed Hosseini, was quoted as saying by IRNA.
The participants will be selected from six major cities in the country, Tehran, Karaj, Isfahan, Shiraz, Mashhad and Bushehr, Hosseini said.
CoV Iran Barkat is only the first of four coronavirus vaccine candidates which have been developed by Iran and are currently undergoing clinical trials.
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif applauded the works of Iranian scientists responsible for the Covid-19 vaccines, saying, “We need to stand on our own.”
The top official also raised concerns over vaccine stockpiling by western countries, “The west has stockpiled vaccines three times more than their need.”
Iran reported 100 deaths caused by the coronavirus on Monday, taking the national toll to 61,330, spokeswoman for the Health Ministry, Sima Sadat Lari, said.
The health official added that 7,980 had contracted the disease within 24 hours, bringing the total tally of cases to 1.754 million.