TEHRAN – Iran and Pakistan discussed ways to enhance cooperation on medical equipment during a webinar on Sunday.

The webinar was attended by the head of the Healthcare Devices Association of Pakistan Masood Ahmed and Consul General of the Islamic Republic Hassan Nourian and representatives of more than 30 Iranian companies active in the field of medical equipment production and supply.

Ahmed announced readiness to use Iranian medical products, stating that the association will cooperate and support the registration of Iranian products in Pakistan and the joint production.

In 2021, Pakistan imported more than $1.4 billion of medical equipment, and the countries of China, Turkey, and Italy had the major share of the export of medical equipment products to Pakistan.

Pakistan has also exported more than $500 million worth of medical equipment to different countries, which has grown by more than 40 percent compared to 2020, he said.

He also invited Iranian companies to attend the Health Asia 2022 exhibition, which will be held in Karachi on October 13-15.

This 3-day annual event which started in 2004, is the biggest annual gathering of the related industry stakeholders and the most important medical event in Pakistan.

-------Global market share

Iran holds a share of one percent (about $5 billion) in the global market for medical equipment of approximately $500 billion, but the country has the potential to increase the share, according to the statistics of the Ministry of Health.

In 2018, the National Medical Device Directorate reported that the Iranian medical equipment market was worth $2.5 billion, 30 percent of which belonged to over 1,000 domestic firms.

On a global scale, 56 percent of 500,000 medical equipment items available in the world market have Iranian versions. In pharmaceuticals, around 70 percent of Iran’s $4.5 billion markets are domestic products and, in 2018, 97 percent of pharmaceuticals consumed in the country were manufactured locally.

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.

Iranian companies producing medical equipment export their products to 54 countries across the world.

FB/MG