Tehran, Iran, August 3
By Mehdi Sepahvand -- Trend:
Through pricing policies, Iran has managed to reduce the money needed for drug import from $1.3 billion last year to $1 billion in the current Iranian fiscal year (which started March 21).
The news was announced by Mehdi Pirsalehi, a senior official at the Iranian Food and Drug Organization, Mehr news agency reported August 3.
Before drug prices stopped going up last September, they used to increase by an annual rate of 15 to 20 percent over ten years, he noted.
Pirsalehi also said the government has devised two ways to continue controlling drug prices through the current Iranian year, those being to control drug importing companies and control imported drug prices.
The majority of the imported drugs include single drugs as well as those needed by patients with cancer or rare diseases.
The Iranian drugs market is worth 80,000 billion rials (about $2.7 billion).
Edited by CN