Iran produces new vaccine for foot-and-mouth disease

Head of Razi Vaccine and Serum Research Institute in Iran Hadi Famil Qadakchi announced that the country\'s scientists have succeeded in the production of a new type of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) vaccine. \"The vaccine can prevent the FMD in the livestock and ruminators which are killed by the disease every year; of course, some changes are witnessed in these viruses every year and we have produced a new type of vaccine after sampling the new virus,\" Qadakchi told reporters in Tehran on Monday. He said that Iran needs 500,000 dozes of FMD vaccine every year which is now available in the country\'s cold storages. In recent years, Iran has taken wide strides in science and technology, particularly in medical and medicinal fields. In 2011, Head of Iran\'s Pasteur Institute Mostafa Qaneyee had announced that the institute plans to produce human vaccines for rabies and hemophilia diseases. \"The center (Pasteur Institute), in cooperation with its affiliated knowledge-based companies, has started a project to produce rabies and hemophilia human vaccines,\" Qaneyee told FNA at the time. He expressed the hope that his institute would start mass-production of the vaccines within the next 2-3 years, adding that the products will be sold not only in domestic, but also in foreign markets. Also, former Iranian Health Minister Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi had boasted the country\'s astonishing progress in producing medical tools, equipment and drugs, saying that Iran ranks first in synthesizing different drugs and medications in the region. \"Iran certainly ranks first in the region in producing medical equipment and medicine and those who stand behind us cannot be compared with Iran at all,\" Vahid Dastjerdi said, addressing the inaugural ceremony of an international exhibition on medical, dentistry and laboratory equipments in Tehran in 2011. The minister further mentioned that Iran exports medical tools and equipment worth $12bln each year and produces 96% of its medical needs, adding that the country also produces 70% of its needed pharmaceutical raw materials domestically.