TEHRAN, Iran, Nov.7
Trend:
The price of medicines has increased by five times in Iran from the beginning of the current Iranian year (began March 21, 2019), and the price growth has been mainly observed in the sector of domestically produced drugs, said member of health committee in Tehran Chamber of Commerce.
"The government and health insurance agencies are covering the difference in the price, so people should not worry over the prices increase, "said Naser Riyahi, Trend reports citing ILNA.
"Due to the sanctions and economic policy to ban import of goods that can be produced domestically, the price of some foreign brands of medicines becomes expensive in free market," he added.
"The major basic materials for medicine are imported from China and India, with most of the materials coming from China, as Iran has good trade ties with the country and has money in Chinese banks," Riyahi said.
"There is strong supervision over imports of medicines, but there is no import of bad quality or expired medicine. Concerning the penicillin, Iran is one of its biggest producers in the world and smuggling it to the country would have no profit. If there are individuals who smuggle medicines, they might be from Europe, and not from China or India," the member of health committee said referring to rumors of fake penicillin and other bad quality drugs from China.
"There is possibility of smuggling basic material for medicines despite the ban, and in this case identifying the medicines produced from this material and those produced domestically is very difficult," he added.