Iran Hopes to Defeat COVID with Home-Grown Crop of Vaccines
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Q&A Iran hopes to defeat COVID with home-grown crop of vaccines Iran is one of few Middle Eastern nations to transfer money is restricted, it is difficult with the capacity to develop vaccines. It to buy drugs and medicines. And we have has been doing so in earnest: more than the technology to produce vaccines, so why ten are in development, but little is known not use it? To ensure the safety of Iranians, it about them outside Iran. Nature speaks makes sense to develop a variety of vaccines to Kayhan Azadmanesh, head of the using different research and development virology division at the Pasteur Institute of strategies, as China has done. Iran in Tehran, about the nation’s vaccine landscape. Azadmanesh also advises the Why are Iranian researchers reluctant to Iranian government and is developing publicize their work internationally? vaccines through his spin-off company This could be another effect of the sanctions. Humimmune Biotech. Researchers in Iran might not want to draw too much attention to their work in case they How badly has the pandemic affected Iran? put potential partnerships in jeopardy or they Since January 2020, we’ve had five waves. run the risk of losing access to raw materials. We’re currently experiencing the highest Researchers are also extremely busy number of new cases reported so far, with during the pandemic. But some have started MAJID ASGARIPOUR/WANA VIA REUTERS MAJID ASGARIPOUR/WANA around 40,000 a day, and the most common to share results. In June, the researchers variant we detect is Delta. Iranians wait to be inoculated at a mass developing COVIran Barekat published a vaccination centre in Tehran. preprint of their preclinical results (A. Abdoli Which COVID-19 vaccines are available? et al. Preprint at bioRxiv https://doi.org/grsj; As of 17 August, 18 million or so doses have between Cuba’s Finlay Institute of Vaccines 2021), and they will share clinical results very been administered. Some 12 million were in Havana and the Pasteur Institute of Iran. soon. We also plan to share the results of our China’s Sinopharm vaccine; 4 million were The vaccine is known as Soberana 02 in adenovirus-vector vaccine soon. the Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccine; and one Cuba. It received emergency-use approval million were COVIran Barekat, developed by in Iran in June, despite still being in phase III What have been the biggest challenges in Shifa Pharmed Industrial Group in Tehran. trials. There are several other vaccines based developing COVID-19 vaccines? The remainder include doses of Russia’s on inactivated viruses and recombinant The sanctions have caused a lot of difficulty, Sputnik V and India’s Covaxin. More than half proteins in clinical trials. There is also at because they make it hard for us to buy a million doses are being administered every least one vaccine that uses mRNA, two that materials and equipment. For example, day, and some 17% of Iran’s population of use adenovirus vectors and one that has chromatography resins to purify vaccines 85 million have received at least one dose. a measles-virus vector in earlier stages of are produced mostly by multinational development. companies that are major suppliers to the Could you tell us about COVIran Barekat? United States, so they might be afraid of It is an inactivated vaccine undergoing Can you tell me about your own vaccines? selling to us. We modify our methods, find phase III trials, but it received emergency-use Humimmune Biotech has been working on other providers, or look for local solutions. authorization in June. It was approved on the two candidates. One uses the measles virus as basis of the levels of antibodies it induces, a backbone to introduce a gene that encodes What does the future hold? including those that can ‘neutralize’ SARS- either the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, which the The initial target for COVIran Barekat CoV-2, or block it from entering cells. In virus uses to enter cells, or the nucleocapsid production was to make up to 30 million early trials, the researchers found that more protein that it requires to replicate. That doses a month by September, which would than 93% of vaccinated people produced vaccine is being produced by BioSun Pharmed have been enough to vaccinate the adult neutralizing antibodies. We don’t know how in Tehran. population. But it has not been possible long this protection will last, but I assume The other vaccine has an adenovirus 5 to achieve that, so Iran has had to import that it will be similar to other inactivated backbone, similar to that used in the second millions of doses of other vaccines. As many vaccines — such as CoronaVac, produced dose of Sputnik V. We hope to start clinical people have said, this will not be the last by the Chinese firm Sinovac Life Sciences — trials early next year. coronavirus pandemic that we face. I expect for which antibody levels have been shown the vaccine production capacity will be to drop after six months, suggesting that Why are Iranian scientists making so many? used for years to come to develop new boosters are required (M. Li et al. Preprint at We can’t rely on help from the international vaccines and drugs, for both coronaviruses medRxiv https://doi.org/grsh; 2021). community with the pandemic. We are living and other pathogens. under sanctions imposed by the United States; What other vaccines is Iran developing? in our opinion, these are unjustified. The Interview by Smriti Mallapaty Pasteurcovac is a recombinant-protein United States says that sanctions don’t affect This interview has been edited for length and vaccine developed by a collaboration humanitarian activities, but when your ability clarity. Nature | Vol 596 | 26 August 2021 | 475 ©2021 Spri nger Nature Li mited. All rights reserved. .