In a situation where the situation of the country has reached a relatively calm situation in terms of the spread of the pandemic, now the news has come that the Koopars production line has been stopped at a cost of 630 billion tomans.
The Vice President of Research and Technology of the Razi Vaccine and Serum Research Institute, referring to the non-fulfillment of obligations by the Ministry of Health regarding the Cooppars vaccine, officially announced that the Corona vaccine has no market in the country, and therefore, the production line of the Razi vaccine has been stopped. According to him, they have spent more than 630 billion tomans to produce 3.5 million doses of vaccine from Bethalmal.
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Stopping the Cooppars production line at a cost of 630 billion tomans
Mohammad Hossein Fallah Mehrabadi, Vice President of Research and Technology of Razi Vaccine and Serum Research Institute, announced the closure of the Cooppars vaccine production line in a conversation with the media and said:
Corona vaccine does not have a market in the country, and the production line of a product that does not have a market will be closed. In February, the Ministry of Health announced to us to produce 3.5 million doses of vaccine so that we can sign the purchase contract. The Razi Institute also produced these vaccines, but there was no news of a purchase contract and now these vaccines are in the warehouses of the Razi Institute. Based on the price of 180 thousand tomans that was considered for each dose of this vaccine, the production cost of these 3.5 million doses of vaccine is 630 billion tomans.
Mr. Mehrabadi also said in a part of his speech that the permission to export the vaccine was given in a situation where the world market was already facing a vaccine saturation and on the other hand, the disease situation around the world had a downward slope:
Even now, when the Ministry of Health plans to inject the fourth dose of the corona vaccine, it has already purchased the required vaccines and they are available in its warehouses.
Falah stated that the Ministry of Health must fulfill its obligations and said: “The President emphasized that the debts related to the vaccine and the arrears of the vaccine manufacturers should be paid, but the Ministry of Health has not fulfilled this obligation.”
Emphasizing that the Kupars vaccine belongs to a government institution, he said that the cost of making this vaccine came from the public funds, and accordingly, better measures should have been taken:
“If there was no need for a vaccine, why were public and private companies asked to produce this vaccine, now this vaccine has been produced and they must react to the obligations created. If this issue is not compensated, a company will not step forward to cooperate with the Ministry of Health regarding the next plans.
The representative of the Razi company and the spokesperson of the Cooppars vaccine project says that this company has already produced 5 million doses of the vaccine and delivered it to the Ministry of Health. He points out that by the end of June 1401, 50% of the claims related to these 5 million doses of our vaccine and other vaccine manufacturers were supposed to be paid, but so far only 10% of the claims have been paid.
Mehrabadi emphasized that they faced 6 months of indecision for the request for a license to use the corona vaccine, and said that the then officials of the Ministry of Health should be held accountable for why they delayed the issuance of the license to use the vaccine. This official went on to criticize the lack of specific program and diplomacy for the vaccine export and said:
There is no specific program for vaccination in the country. Now it is not clear how long the vaccines that are available in the warehouses of the Ministry of Health have their expiration date, how much they have bought from domestic vaccine manufacturers, how much of them they have and how much they have injected?
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