TEHRAN – Iran’s health minister hailed pharmacists on Thursday for their role in healthcare and said that with 100 trillion rials (about $3 million) revenue, pharmacists contribute more than 15 percent to health economics, the Fars news agency reported.

Hassan Qazizadeh Hashemi, speaking on the occasion of Pharmacists’ Day in the Razi Conference Center in Tehran, said that pharmacists constitute five percent of medical personnel in the health sector and that now there are about $4 billion turnover in pharma market.

Qazizadeh Hashemi said that about two third of the medicines are being produced in the country and one third is imported.

He added that he’d rather delegate many of the pharma-related fields which are currently handled by the government to pharmacists’ syndicate.

The health minister also encouraged young pharmacists to establish science–based companies and ensured them that the ministry under his leadership is paving the way for such firms.

He also pointed to $350 million cut in import of medicines over the last two years, saying people’s access to medicines has increased from 65 percent to 95 during this period.

The minister announced that medicines with higher quality are to be produced in the near future, adding that Iraq is now purchasing about $15 million medicines and medical equipment from Iran but much more from Turkey.

Pharmacists’ Day in Iran is observed on Aug 27, a day on which Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi, an important figure in the history of medicine, was born.