The Islamic Republic of Iran produces ninety-five per cent of the medicines needed to treat patients inside the country, while fifty per cent of the raw materials are also made in Iran. Next on the list are new lines of drugs to treat certain types of cancer, multiple sclerosis and diabetes and the first target is the Middle East's 400 million-strong population.
Earlier this year, the director of the Iranian Society of Manufacturers and Exporters of Medical Biotech Products, Amir Hossein Karagah, stated that Iran had high capacities in producing biological medical products, and that his country currently exports to Malaysia, Turkey, Iraq, Armenia, Kazakhstan and Russia, among others.
The Islamic Republic of Iraq has announced recently that in the last few years, over a dozen biological drugs have been produced, meaning that the country is well on the way to self-sufficiency as regards the production of medicines - in fact 96 per cent of the medicines used to treat patients inside Iran are produced internally, along with 50 per cent of the raw materials. It also enables Iran to compete with important international firms, increasing income as Teheran eyes up the Middle East as the next stage of its exportation program - a market with 400 million inhabitants.
In 2014 this sector provided some 1.2 billion USD for the Iranian economy, the main products being biotech drugs and herbal medicines, an area in which Iran is advanced due to the great variety of species of flora which grow in the country.
Yesterday the Health Minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran Seyed Hassan Qazizadeh reaffirmed that there is a large market waiting for Iranian exports but that this has not been exploited to the full. At a meeting with the Swedish Health Minister Gabriel Wikstrom in Teheran on Sunday, he stated "The Middle-East region has a 400-millon-strong population and production and exports of drugs in this region has created a good market for the mutual cooperation of Swedish and Iranian firms."
Iran has launched production lines of recombinant drugs which target multiple sclerosis, some types of cancer and diabetes
Sources: PressTV, Theiranproject
Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey
Pravda.Ru
Twitter: @TimothyBHinchey
timothy.hinchey@gmail.com
*Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey has worked as a correspondent, journalist, deputy editor, editor, chief editor, director, project manager, executive director, partner and owner of printed and online daily, weekly, monthly and yearly publications, TV stations and media groups printed, aired and distributed in Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, East Timor, Guinea-Bissau, Portugal, Mozambique and São Tomé and Principe Isles; the Russian Foreign Ministry publication Dialog and the Cuban Foreign Ministry Official Publications. He has spent the last two decades in humanitarian projects, connecting communities, working to document and catalog disappearing languages, cultures, traditions, working to network with the LGBT communities helping to set up shelters for abused or frightened victims and as Media Partner with UN Women, working to foster the UN Women project to fight against gender violence and to strive for an end to sexism, racism and homophobia. A Vegan, he is also a Media Partner of Humane Society International, fighting for animal rights. He is Director and Chief Editor of the Portuguese version of Pravda.Ru.