Tehran, Iran, June 16
By Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend:
Iran is in talks with foreign companies to import expensive, advanced medical equipment, Health Minister Hassan Hashemi said.
The equipment will include PT Scan, MRI, CT Scan, angiography, echography, and sonography machines to be distributed among governmental hospitals across the country.
Hashemi added that 10 trillion rials (about $340 million) has been set aside for buying new equipment for Iranian hospitals, Fars news agency reported June 16.
He said part of the money would go into buying equipment that can be produced with good quality inside Iran.
"But people's lives are important to us and we can't overlook that on any pretext," he said, noting that some other equipment would have to be imported for their Iranian production is not of good quality.
Hashemi said as an example, Iran is not yet able to produce ambulances and it will have to import them.
He went on to say that last year Iran decreased its drugs import by $400 million by tapping domestic production. President of the Association of Pharmaceutical Importers of Iran Naser Riahi said early this year that Iran imports $1 billion worth of drugs a year.
The Iranian drugs market is worth 80,000 billion rials (24,500 rials making USD1).
Iranian Food and Drug Organization Director Rasoul Dinarvand announced Jan. 27 that the country's drug export had hit $150 million.
Edited by CN