Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec.25
By Fatih Karimov - Trend: Iran has never imported penicillin from China and any cases of death reported as a result of injecting Chinese penicillin is false, the Fars News Agency quoted Iran's Food and Drug Organization head Rasoul Dinarvand as saying on December 25.
We just imported raw material under strict restriction for producing penicillin from China, he added.
Like many countries in the world, we import raw pharmaceutical material from China and India, because these countries are the main sources of raw pharmaceutical materials in the world, he said.
In April, head of Iranian Society of experts on internal diseases, doctor Iraj Khosravinia said at least 5 people in Iran have died after being treated with Chinese penicillin, Young Journalists' club website reported.
"The mortality rate in the country is higher because of the people using Chinese drugs," Khosravinia said.
Iran imports 90 percent of raw materials for producing medicaments from India and China, Iran's Food and Drug Organization deputy director Shams-Ali Rezazadeh said.
Considering cheap raw materials in East Asian countries, we have planned to import raw materials for medicaments from India and China, he noted. But, no medicaments are currently imported from China, he added.
We apply strict regulations for importing medicine from foreign countries. We issue the permission for importing medicine from other countries, for example from India or South Korea. Their medicine samples should be approved by the Food and Drug Organization, he said.
Iran has been experiencing big problems with imports of medicine and medical drugs into the country because of imposed sanctions.
It has been reported in January that Iranian doctors refuse to use Chinese anaesthetics on the patients, because of their lower quality.
Previously, the anaesthetics were imported into Iran from India.