TEHRAN – A delegation of Iranian knowledge-based firms will attend the 21st edition of the Health Asia which will take place in Karachi, Pakistan, from October 17 to 19.

The exhibition serves as a platform for knowledge-based companies to feature their latest advancement in hospital, dental, pharmaceutical, diagnostic, laboratory, medical, as well as surgical tools and equipment.

It also provides an opportunity to showcase their latest products including hospital furniture, medical disposables, finalized pharmaceutical products, medicines and chemicals, laboratories and diagnostic centers, health insurance, health tourism, prostheses, and orthopedics.

Health Asia is an international exhibition and conference for the health sector.

The event is attended by health care professionals including doctors, support medical services, and material/product providers from the local as well as the international market.

It provides the opportunity for learning, sharing information, and cooperation among all the stakeholders in the Asian health sector.

Health Asia also comprises conferences on the latest research and developments in medicine, laboratory technology, diagnostics, surgery, physiotherapy, and diets.

Knowledge-based companies manufacturing medications

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.

Iranian knowledge-based companies have succeeded in producing recombinant drugs which are mainly used for treating hard-to-treat diseases such as cancers, MS, hemophilia, and viral diseases.

Over 60 countries import Iranian medical equipment

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.

MT/MG