Azerbaijan, Baku, Aug.26/ Trend F.Milad/
Iran plans to export as much as 5 trillion rials (some $400 million) worth of pharmaceutical products in the current calendar year, which ends on March 20, 2013, the health minister said.
Marzieh Vahid-Dastjerdi told the IRNA News Agency that exports of pharmaceutical products amounted to $114 million last year.
Deputy health minister Mostafa Qanei said in June that the existing pharmaceutical companies have the capacity to raise their output by 3-4 folds, adding that imports of drugs amount to some $1 billion per year.
"We have proposed plans to the government, based on which if each of 140 operating drug producing factories exports $500 million worth of products, the exports will amount to $70 billion annually, equal to oil revenues," he said, the ISNA News Agency reported.