TEHRAN — Two new cancer medications as well as two drugs for treatment of diabetes were unveiled in a knowledge-based pharmaceutical company in Alborz province on Tuesday morning.

The unveiling ceremony of the four domestically produced drugs was attended by Health Minister Saeed Namaki and Vice President for Science and Technology Sourena Sattari.

Additionally, the two officials attended the unveiling ceremony for an antivenom as well as a vaccine for Peste des petits ruminants (PPR), also known as 'goat plague' at pharmaceutical biotechnology incubator.

According to a report by IRNA news agency, empagliflozin and dapagliflozin, medications used to treat type 2 diabetes, in addition to regorafenib and sorafenib, two cancer drugs are now being manufactured in Iran.

Empagliflozin, sold under the trade name Jardiance among others, is a medication used together with diet and exercise to treat type 2 diabetes. Dapagliflozin, sold under the brand name Farxiga among others, is also a medication used to treat type 2 diabetes.

Iran is now capable of producing 800 kilograms of empagliflozin and 100 kilograms of dapagliflozin annually, the report added.

Empagliflozin was approved for medical use in the United States in 2014. A month supply in the United Kingdom costs the NHS about £ 36.59 as of 2019. In the United States the wholesale cost of this amount is about US$ 442. In 2016 it was the 289th most prescribed medication in the United States with more than a million prescriptions.

Just after 5 years Iran also succeeded in producing empagliflozin.

Regorafenib is used to treat cancer of the colon and rectum which has spread to other parts of the body. It is also used to treat liver cancer and a certain cancer of the digestive system (gastrointestinal stromal tumor). It works by slowing or stopping the growth of cancer cells.

And sorafenib, is a kinase inhibitor drug approved for the treatment of primary kidney cancer, advanced primary liver cancer, FLT3-ITD positive AML and radioactive iodine resistant advanced thyroid carcinoma.

Some of the aforesaid medications produced in Iran will be exported to other countries, namely India and Russia.

MQ/MG