| Vaccine description | |
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| Target | SARS-CoV-2 |
| Vaccine type | Protein subunit |
| Clinical data | |
| Routes of administration | Intramuscular |
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| CAS Number | |
| Part ofa series on the |
| COVID-19 pandemic |
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Medical response |
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.svg) COVID-19 portal |
Noora (Persian:نورا) is aCOVID-19 vaccine candidate developed byBaqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences in collaboration with Plasma Darman Sarv Sepid Co. (lit.White Cypress Plasma Treatment) in Iran.[1][2] Introduced in June 2021,[3] it was announced as having "successfully passed the first phase of its clinical trial" two months later.[4]
The clinical trial reported in theJournal of Medical Virology met a critical scrutiny in May 2023, after which the journal declared it as an invalid study and retracted it in March 2024.[5][6][7] Independent research in 2024 indicated that the vaccine is very weak (poorimmunogenicity andneutralization efficacy) unlikely useful for the later variants of SARS-CoV-2.[8][9]
Noora vaccine was developed by an Iranian team led by Jafar Salimian and Jafar Amani at the Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences in Tehran,[10] which is supported by theIslamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.[11] Its design and preparation started in the early 2020 and completed in June 2021. The vaccine with its Phase I clinical trial was officially launched on 27 June 2021.[12] IRGC Commander-in-Chief Major GeneralHossein Salami and Health MinisterSaeed Namaki officiated the unveiling, and Hossein Samadinia, head of the Baqiyatallah Hospital, received the first dose at the inaugural.[1][13] Phase I clinical trial involved 70 volunteers and was completed in August 2021.[4][12]
In March 2022, Hassan Abolqasemi, chancellor of Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, announced that the Phase III clinical trial was completed that involved 10,000 participants.[14] Soon after which the Iranian Ministry of Health gave it a permit for emergency use, and became the sixth COVID-19 vaccine (afterCOVIran Barekat,Pasto Covac,Razi Cov Pars,SpikoGen, andFAKHRAVAC) produced in Iran.[14] The vaccine preparation and preclinical tests in mice, rabbits, and monkeys were reported in the journalMolecular Immunology in September 2022.[15]
The first clinical trial led by Salimian and Amani,[10] and supervised by Hassan Abolghasemi and Gholamhossein Alishiri, was published in theJournal of Medical Virology 27 August 2022.[16] The report claims that the vaccine is effective, safe and capable of providing immunity.[10] The report concludes:
The results of this Phase 1 trial showed acceptable safety without serious adverse events and significant seroconversions in the humoral and cellular immunity panel. The dose of 80 μg is an appropriate dose for injection in the next phases of the trial.[16]
Noora vaccine requires three doses given byintramuscular injection on days 0, 21 and 35.[17] Phase I clinical trial was claimed to indicate successful immunity againstSARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant.[10]
Noora is arecombinant RBDprotein subunit vaccine.[17] It contains three truncated parts of SARS-CoV-2: spike protein, receptor-binding protein and nucleoprotein. The immune response is enhanced by the addition ofalum as an adjuvant.[15][18]
By early 2022, 3 million doses were produced monthly.[11] As of March 2022, 5 millions doses were produced.[14]
| Phase | Registration number | Start | Number of participants | Age of participants | Ref | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | Vaccine | Placebo | |||||
| I | IRCT20210620051639N1 | 25 June 2021 | 70 | 30(80 μg) 30(120 μg) | 10(placebo) | 18–50 years | [17] |
| II | IRCT20210620051639N2 | 10 October 2021 | 300 | 240 | 60 | 18–40 years | [19] |
| III | IRCT20210620051639N3 | 23 December 2021 | 10000 | >18 years | [20] | ||
In May 2023, Donald Forthal, chief of infectious diseases at theUniversity of California, Irvine, wrote a commentary on the Phase I clinical trial paper in theJournal of Medical Virology,[21] severely criticising the validity of the study.[22] Forthal pointed out several data inconsistency, misrepresentation, vague experimental methods andconflict of interest that would have used to reject the paper in the first place.[7][23] He made a concern that "a manuscript containing so many serious flaws would have been accepted for publication following peer review, and given these issues, a retraction may be in order".[21] As the criticism was posted onPubPeer, other scientists also raised other concerns in the study.[5][23] Australian epidemiologist Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz stated that the report had several other "impossible" and "contradictory" results.[7]
While the authors and the Baqiyatallah University remained silent,Journal of Medical Virology's editor-in-chief Shou-Jiang Gao invited justifications from the authors. The authors submitted the rebuttal, but after the third round of peer reviewing, they gave up on the final dateline of 23 November 2023 for revision.[23] With no further response from the authors, the journal announced retraction of the paper on 2 March 2024,[7][22] with a note:
The retraction has been agreed due to concerns raised by third parties regarding issues with the data presented in the article. Several inconsistencies concerning the information provided about the analyzed subjects were additionally identified. Furthermore, the authors failed to disclose the presence of potential conflicts of interest that may have affected the interpretation of the results presented. Accordingly, the editors consider the conclusions of this manuscript to be invalid. The authors have been informed of the decision to retract but did not agree with it.[6]
One of the supervisors of the clinical trial, Abolghasemi claimed that the criticism and retraction were not of scientific causes but of prejudices, and his team was not given a chance for explanation. As he wrote toRetraction Watch: "Retraction of our article was a political decision not a scientific decision because there was a pressure on journal based on [apartheid] scientific issue. Our response to the comment never accepted by [PubPeer] and journal to be published."[7]
An independent research team fromTehran University of Medical Sciences andAvicenna Research Institute experimentally analysed four COVID-19 vaccines developed in Iran. Their report inIranian Journal of Immunology, published in March 2024, showed that Noora and SpikoGen do hot have the expected efficacy (as indicated by poor immunogenicity and neutralization efficacy).[8] As the two vaccines do not provide protection from SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant, it is unlikely useful for the later variants of SARS-CoV-2.[9]
