TEHRAN – Biotechnology products account for a major portion of Iran’s pharmaceutical exports, with a share of 60 percent.

Some 99 percent of pharmaceutical biotechnology products are manufactured domestically, Mehr news agency quoted Haleh Ahmadi, the head of the association of pharmaceutical biotechnology producers and exporters, as saying.

Biotechnology products are exported to 40 countries worldwide, compared to 35 countries in the past Iranian calendar year (March 2024 – March 2025). The exported medicines are worth 120 - 130 million dollars, Ahmadi said.

Thanks to the pharmaceutical biotechnology producers, the country is saving 5 billion dollars, which would have otherwise been spent on importing these products, she noted.

Currently, 45 pharmaceutical biotechnology products, including medicines, kits, and medical tools, are produced in Iran, Ahmadi added.

Iran ranks first in biotech among Islamic nations

With 1,111 documents in biotechnology, Iran ranked first among Islamic countries in 2024, up from second in 2023, according to the recent report published by SCImago.

The country ranked 11th globally in this category. Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Turkey, and Egypt ranked second to fifth with 1,008, 979, 839, and 802 articles, respectively.

The report has also included a ranking based on articles published from 1996 to 2024. Over the 28 years, Iran, with 15,188 articles in biotechnology, ranks first in the region, followed by Turkey (with 10,973 articles) and Egypt (with 7,947 articles). The country ranks 15 globally.

In all subject areas and categories, the country ranks second in the region and 17th worldwide with 75,501 articles published in 2024.

Having published 966,118 articles in all subject areas and categories from 1996 to 2024, Iran ranks second in the region and 19th globally.

Self-sufficiency in medicine

The issue of medicine and medical equipment production and self-sufficiency in these areas is one of the government’s priorities, Health Minister Mohammad-Reza Zafarqandi said in March.

Medicine and medical equipment are two important areas related to people’s health, he said, adding: “We are trying to reach self-sufficiency for the supply of medicine and medical equipment,” IRNA reported.

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

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.

Some 600 medical equipment companies are active in the country, producing around 99 percent of the medicine supplied to the domestic market.

Medical equipment manufacturers in the country produce and supply over 10,000 types of medical equipment to domestic and foreign markets. Now, various pieces of laboratory equipment are manufactured at prices much lower than the same foreign products.

MT/ MG