TEHRAN – Iranian Health Minister Bahram Einollahi and Iraqi Minister of Industry Manhal Aziz discussed the creation of a joint market for health and medical products.

During a meeting on Saturday, the two officials discussed the creation of a market for health and medical products, emphasizing the need to create a joint exhibition of homegrown products.

“We need joint products in both countries. Therefore, we can use them in the required fields by exchanging medicine and medical equipment,” Einollahi said.

The inappropriate rules and obstacles to the development of cooperation should be removed, and speed up the process of work in customs and issuing licenses, he further highlighted.

Cooperation between the two countries in the production of medicine and medical equipment can meet the needs of regional markets.

He went on to note that both countries must try to stand on their own feet. Iran has been sanctioned for years, and the pressure increased during the coronavirus pandemic, he added.

The purchase of each other’s products creates employment as well as production and business prosperity and activates the common market between the two countries, he said.

Iraq is a priority for economic cooperation, he further stated.

Aziz also expressed willingness to enhance cooperation in this field, noting that his country welcomes industrial cooperation with Iran.

Iraqi companies produce 10 percent of the country’s medicine and the rest of the medicine is imported, but the quality and price of the medicine are important factors, he said.

Joint cooperation between the two countries in the production of medicine and medical equipment can meet the needs of the region, he further added.

Rise in pharmaceuticals, medical production

The import of pharmaceuticals has declined in Iran by 91 percent, which shows the capability of the country’s pharmaceutical industry, Mohammad Reza Shanehsaz, former head of the Food and Drug Administration, said last October.

Today, all medicine used in the treatment of coronavirus are produced by domestic manufacturers, and if we wanted to import all the items, there would be a high exchange rate, he further stated, emphasizing that COVID-19 vaccine development indicates the pharmaceutical industry’s capability.

In 2018, 67 percent of the active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) used to produce drugs in Iran were made locally.

A total of 227 knowledge-based firms are supplying medical equipment for health centers across the country, according to the Vice Presidency for Science and Technology.

Knowledge-based companies can produce any medicine effective in countering coronavirus or approved by the scientific committee within a week to 10 days, Sourena Sattari, vice president for science and technology, said.

In January 2021, the Headquarters for Executing the Order of the Imam unveiled three raw pharmaceuticals and a new anti-coronavirus drug called Ivermectin, which had been previously imported.

Also, Iran is capable of production of biopharmaceuticals, which has so far reached 28 items, making Iran the third leading country in Asia.

FB/MG