Iran to export TB, hepatitis vaccines soon

Iranian Deputy Health Minister for Research and Technology Mostafa Qaneyee announced that Iran will start exporting hepatitis-B and tuberculosis vaccines in the near future. “The representatives of the World Health Organization (WHO) have come to Iran to approve the supply of the Iranian vaccines to the international markets,” Qaneyee, who is also the head of Iran's Pasteur Institute, told FNA. He expressed the hope that the said vaccines could receive the international certificates for export to other countries in a two-year period. “The quality of these two Iranian vaccines competes with the best vaccines produced in the world,” the official added. In recent years, Iran has taken wide strides in science and technology, particularly in medical and medicinal fields. Last month, Iranian Deputy Health Minister Rasoul Dinarvand underlined the ministry's firm will to expand exports of its products, particularly new vaccines, to the regional and international markets. Dinarvand, who is also head of drug and food organization, pointed to the ministry's future programs to develop new vaccines in the country, and said that the country's vaccine production industry is scheduled to produce DTP (pentavalent), hepatitis B, and Haemophilus influenza vaccines in the new Iranian calendar year (will start March 21). “Country’s vaccines are produced in Pasteur and Razi Institutes,” said the deputy-minister. Late in October, Iranian Health Minister Seyed Hassan Qazizadeh Hashemi announced that Iran plans to produce seven new vaccines and also reduce its reliance on importing drugs by 25 percent in a four-year period. “According to the plan, 25 percent of (Iran's) drug dependence will be removed in four years … and seven needed vaccines will be produced in the country during the same period,” Hashemi said. He underlined that 95 percent of Iran's needs to medicines are manufactured domestically, but meantime said that the country has a 52-percent reliance on raw materials for drug production. “Under the new administration, we have set up the technology council for the purpose of producing vaccines and medicines …,” the Iranian health minister said. In 2011, 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.