The Pasteur Institute of Iran, drawing on its deep technical expertise and long-standing legacy, continues to serve as the nation's reference center for the diagnosis of human and animal rabies samples and the quality control of related specimens, while laying the groundwork for Iran to achieve self-sufficiency in the production of animal rabies vaccines. Speaking at the World Rabies Day conference on September 28, 2026, Dr. Ehsan Mostafavi, the Director General of the Pasteur Institute of Iran underscored the institute's strategic role in strengthening national health security. He stated that with sustained financial backing and infrastructure investment, Iran could fully meet its domestic demand for animal rabies vaccines and move toward producing human rabies vaccines as well. Recalling the institute's distinguished history in human vaccine production, which dates back to its founding in 1920, he noted that the technical know-how for manufacturing human rabies vaccines has already been secured. "With adequate financial support," he said, "the infrastructure needed to expand animal rabies vaccine production capacity and establish a human rabies vaccine production line can be realized." He further pointed out that the institute produces a wide range of laboratory animals, and that providing standardized animals for reference testing and quality assurance processes forms the bedrock of its rabies diagnostic and production activities. The Pasteur Institute of Iran holds recognition as a WHO Collaborating Center at national, regional, and international levels. As the country's national rabies reference laboratory, it stands as the primary authority for the investigation, diagnosis, and final confirmation of human and animal samples suspected of the disease nationwide. At the close of the event, the National Rabies Control Document was signed—an initiative whose implementation will require sustained coordination and support from relevant executive bodies.