Over 25.5m Doses of Covid vaccines imported so far

Cobel Darou, one of the biggest pharmaceutical companies in Iran, is the importer of these vaccines from the Russian drug-maker R-Pharm.

Earlier this year, the private sector announced it has signed a deal to import six million doses of Covid-19 vaccines.

“Imports of the vaccines will be financed by business owners, manufacturers and executive managers of companies at the market exchange rate for the free vaccination of workers,” Masoud Khansari, the head of Tehran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture, said.

Noting that several companies managed to place an order for the purchase of six million doses of Sputnik V and AstraZeneca vaccines and that all large and small companies, even those active in services, agreed to finance over 15,000 billion rials ($58 million) for importing these vaccines, he said the pro forma invoice of these doses was received from seller companies and sent to the Health Ministry.

A pro forma invoice is a preliminary bill or estimated invoice used to request payment from the committed buyer for goods or services before they are supplied.

“It was vital that the import procedure finalize at a faster pace without common bureaucratic barriers but unfortunately these bureaucratic complexities blew up the opportunity, since sellers insisted on the Iranian government approving the purchases. For a month, the chamber was jostling with the Health Ministry to secure the approval letter.

We talked almost with all high-ranking officials; all of them in the government or in the parliament promised to cooperate but the pro forma invoice was only valid for a week,” the TCCIM chief said.

“We missed the opportunity to buy a million doses of vaccine due to lack of collaboration. The world faced another wave of Covid-19 in June and countries limited their exports.

TCCIM tried to find another source.

This time, importer companies tried to purchase three million doses of AstraZeneca from India on their own credit. But due to India’s worsening Covid crisis, the country banned exports. Credit documents regarding imports from India are still valid and hopefully the Asian country will lift the ban on imports soon.”

In the meantime, a well-known company has managed to import a significant volume of AstraZeneca vaccines using the government’s subsidized foreign currency at the rate of 42,000 rials per US dollar and give them to the Health Ministry, two shipments of which have so far arrived in the country.   

“Sadly, Iran’s bureaucratic system is not ready at all for reacting efficiently in the face of emergencies. Somehow, one might say this type of stonewalling was intentional; there’s no reason to think vaccine imports by the private sector won’t endanger the interests of some people,” he concluded.

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