TEHRAN – Forty Iranian knowledge-based firms are participating in the Afghan Health Exhibition, being held from December 2 to 4, in Kabul.

The three-day event provides a valuable platform for knowledge-based companies to showcase their latest products and achievements in the healthcare sector. They also seek to establish a permanent presence in Afghanistan's market, ISNA reported.

Head of Food and Drug Administration, Mehdi Pirsalehi, is going to pay a visit to the Iranian pavilions in the exhibition to support them.

On the sidelines of the exhibition, Pirsalehi will hold a meeting with Afghan health officials to discuss fostering cooperation in the health and pharmaceutical sectors.

Self-sufficiency in medicine, medical equipment

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 has said.

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