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Iran starts exporting anti-cancer drug to Syria

Business Materials 15 November 2014 14:09 (UTC +04:00)

By Milad Fashtami - Trend:

Iran has started exporting Sinadoxosome anti-cancer drug to Syria.

Mahnaz Qomi, the managing director of the Exir Nano Sina Company, said that Tehran has so far exported 400 vials of the medicine to Damascus, Iran's IRNA News Agency reported on Nov. 15.

"If the request for exports rises, we can increase the production of the medicine up to 20,000 vials per yer," she said.

Qomi went on to note that by producing the medicine domestically Iran annually saves $4.5 million

"The price of each vial of the drug is around $700 in regional markets. But the price is 3.8 million rials (some $118 based on the exchange rate of US dollar at the free market)," she said.

"The patients that are under the cover of insurance only have to pay 10 percent of the mentioned price," Qomi added.

The drug acquired the necessary certificates from Nanotechnology Committee of the Ministry of Health, Treatment, and Medical Education in November 2011.

Iran inaugurated the production line of an anti-cancer nanodrug under the name Sinadoxosome in the Northern city of Rasht in February 2012.

The medicine is presented under the commercial name of Calix in Europe, and Doxil in the United States.

Sinadoxosome contains nano liposomes that contain doxorubicin anti-cancer medicine. It targets the tumor tissue by using the increase in the permeability mechanism, and it boosts the effect of the medicine but decreases the side effects. The medicine has applications in the treatment of ovarian cancer, breast cancer, and leukemia, and in the treatment of Kaposi's sarcoma (a type of soft tissue cancer).

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