TEHRAN –Sanctions have resulted in the growth of the country's pharmaceutical and medical equipment industry, Heidar Mohammadi, the head of the Food and Drug Administration, has said.

Iran is known as one of the leading producers and exporters of medicine and medical equipment in the region, he highlighted.

Mohammadi made the remarks in a meeting with Razan Salota, the Syrian deputy health minister for pharmaceutical affairs, in Tehran on Wednesday.

He added that the high quality of the products is one of the key components for competition in export markets and "we have tried to improve the quality of these products to boost exports to the regional market."

Acknowledging Iran’s pivotal role in supplying pharmaceuticals and medical equipment to the Syrian market, the Syrian official, for his part, asked Iran to help Syria access certain vaccines, Mehr news agency reported.

Salota said following the agreements made in the last two years, the collaborations between the two countries have been successful so far.

Mohammadi, referring to the positive relations between Iran and Syria, noted, "We will definitely continue providing medical equipment and medicines and plan to transfer knowledge to Syria to help the country improve its healthcare system in the near future.”

Over 60 countries import Iranian medical equipment

Medical equipment worth around $20 million is exported to more than 60 countries annually, the head of Iran’s Union of Medical Equipment Manufacturers and Exporters said on January 13.

More than 70 percent of medical equipment and 100 percent of normal hospital beds are domestically made, IRNA quoted Abdolreza Yaqoubzadeh as saying.

Also, over 95 percent of specific ICU and CCU beds and more than 85 percent of operating room medical equipment such as anesthesia machines and other equipment are manufactured with cutting-edge technology in the country, he added.

Yaqoubzadeh went on to say that the country's need for medical equipment production is three to four billion dollars per year, some one billion dollars of which is imported.

Exporting equipment to neighboring countries

On December 30, 2023, Vice President for Science, Technology, and Knowledge-based Economy, Rouhollah Dehqani-Firouzabadi, said the country is planning to export laboratory equipment to neighboring countries.

Knowledge-based companies started to meet the country’s technological needs in the past decade, he said, adding that the Vice Presidency supported the companies to manufacture laboratory equipment, Mehr News Agency reported.

Now, various pieces of laboratory equipment are manufactured at prices much lower than the same foreign products, Dehqani-Firouzabadi noted.

Foreign delegations that attend Iranian exhibitions will be familiarized with the country’s capabilities, he said, adding that the export of knowledge-based products was $300 million in the year to March 2021, but increased to $600 million the year after.

The export has surged to $1.5 billion so far in the current Iranian calendar year and is forecast to hit $2 billion by the end of the year, he said.

Export of medicine and medical equipment rise

Iran experienced a significant rise in exports of medicine and medical equipment in the first four months of the current Iranian calendar year that started on March 21, 2023.

“Exports of pharmaceuticals and medical equipment grew by 300 percent in the first four months of the year,” IRNA quoted Heidar Mohammadi, the head of the Food and Drug Administration, as saying.

Around 99 percent of the medicine supplied to the domestic market is produced by Iranian companies, he highlighted.

Currently, the production of medicine, medical equipment, and powdered milk is supported by subsidies. So, their exports were very limited, but it is hoped that their exports will increase next year, he explained.

Referring to the shortage of 100 drug items in the country, he said: “Currently, nearly one and a half percent of the country's pharmaceutical need is imported. Along with domestic production, it is done as soon as the domestic production meets the demand.”

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.

MT/MG