Evaluation of Barriers Affecting the Design and Manufacture of the Recombinant Vaccine in Iran

COVID-19 vaccine production in Iran faced various challenges. This study was conducted to evaluate the obstacles affecting the design and manufacture of a recombinant vaccine in Iran. The present study was a mixed study conducted in 2022 to identify and analyze the barriers affecting the designing and manufacturing of the recombinant vaccine in Iran. The study sample included eight policymakers, decision-makers, and specialists involved in vaccine design and manufacturing, who were selected purposefully by the snowball sampling method. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used to collect data. The brainwriting technique was used to identify factors affecting vaccine design and manufacturing, and the Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation (DEMATEL) technique was used to analyze the systematic relationships between components. In the qualitative stage (Brainwriting), three themes, including individual barriers, organizational barriers, and environmental barriers, were extracted. Also, organizational barriers with coordinates C: [6.66, 0.66] and individual barriers with coordinates C: [5.2, -0.6] in the hierarchy of the interactive model are known as the most influential and impressible components, respectively. According to the upstream documents in the field of science and technology and emphasis on the manufacture of recombinant drugs and vaccines and Biological threats in the future and the existence of appropriate equipment and human resources in the field of vaccine production, by removing the barriers, can create a big step in the field of drug and vaccine production.