Nicaragua will receive a donation of 200,000 doses of the Iranian COVIran Barakat vaccine in May, the Government of Daniel Ortega announced this Friday, through the official media: El 19 Digital.
As described, the delivery of this biological, which does not yet have the approval of the World Health Organization (WHO) and that at the moment is only applied in Iran, was established by means of a memorandum signed at the Nicaraguan embassy in Tehran, between the producers of the vaccine and the Ministry of Health of that country.
“We have reached this point with Nicaragua and today we are signing an agreement and we have received official requests from five other countries while we are negotiating,” said Hassan Jalili, general director of the SHIFA Group, a subsidiary of BARKAT Pharmaceuticals.
The Nicaraguan Minsa authorities had already shown interest in the COVIran Barakat vaccine since August 2021, when the Secretary General of the Minsa, Carlos Sáenz, and a Nicaraguan delegation held a meeting with representatives of this pharmaceutical company, in which they explained the details about the development and level of efficacy of this vaccine. Likewise, the Iranian representatives offered it at a “very favorable price”, according to media related to the Government.
As described by the Iranian news agency IRNA, the Nicaraguan ambassador also mentioned the interest in “developing medical cooperation with Iran, since the Latin American country trusts the capabilities of the Persian country.”
What is known about this vaccine
The COVIran Barakat vaccine was developed using a dead version of SAR-CoV-2, which causes the covid-19 disease, which is not capable of infecting, but which does manage to arouse an immune response in those who receive the dose.
According to the manufacturers with the application of the first dose an efficiency of 50% is reached and with the second it rises to 90%. These are applied with a difference of 28 days. This vaccine has already completed the third phase of research, in which 20,000 volunteers participated, and has already begun the WHO approval process.
The representative of the pharmaceutical company that created this vaccine told the Cuban news agency, The Latin Press, which in April await the visit of the WHO experts to verify the documentation on this vaccine that has already been delivered as part of the emergency use approval process of this body. Which will allow exporting this biological to more countries.
This would be the third “show of will” offered by the Government of Daniel Ortega to its allied countries. The first was with Russia, which in May 2021 it became the country’s main supplier of vaccines by acquiring 4.4 million Sputnik V and Sputnik Light vaccines, which are not yet approved by the WHO.
Then Cuba joined, with whom it agreed to deliver seven million Sovereign 02 and Abdala vaccines to apply to the country’s pediatric population. At the time of the agreement, these vaccines had not finished their studies and therefore do not have the approval of international organizations.
These agreements for the acquisition of vaccines not approved by international organizations — such as the WHO, the European Medicines Agency or the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) — occurred despite the population’s expressed mistrust and concern.
Nicaragua has 15.4 million vaccines
In the last year, Nicaragua has received 15.4 million vaccines against covid-19 from nine types of vaccines, including: Sputnik V and Light, AstraZeneca, Sinopharm, Pfizer, Jansen, Soberana 02, Abdala and Covishield. Of this figure, 9.6 million have been applied, with which it was possible to immunize 61% of the population. The Nicaraguan authorities have only made one purchase of internationally approved vaccines.
Although it has not yet been possible to vaccinate the entire population, mainly to the Caribbean of Nicaragua, the Minsa decided to administer a fourth and fifth dose. This decision, made without scientific evidence, proposes to vaccinate the population against covid-19 every year.
