TEHRAN – Iran has attained success in pharmaceutical manufacturing over the past years, however, drug manufacturing infrastructures should be strengthened, Mostafa Qanei, secretary of biotech development center (BioDC) at science and technology vice-presidency said, IRNA reported on Monday.

Drug manufacturing is one of the most important needs of the country, to which a special attention should be paid, he said.

Considering the limited number of pharmaceutical companies in the country, more effort is needed to provide necessary infrastructures, he added.

In this line, the optimum use of National Innovation Fund as well as the knowledge of experts and the youth can play an important role in order to improve pharmaceutical industry in the country, he explained.

In February, Qanei announced that there were 146 items of biopharmaceuticals in the global market, of which 22 items are available in Iran including monoclonal antibodies and recombinant proteins.

In November 2018, the former director of Iranian Food and Drug Administration (IFDA) said some two third of Iran’s required pharmaceutical raw materials are produced domestically.

According to Gholamreza Asghari, the production of pharmaceutical raw materials in the current Iranian calendar year (started March 21, 2019) has risen to 67 percent from two years ago when it stood at around 54 percent.

SB/MG