Tehran, Iran, Sept. 6
By Mehdi Sepahvand – Trend:
Drug and medical supplies constitute 2.8 percent of Iran’s added value in industrial units with 10 and more workers.
From 2004 to 2013, the number of factories with 10 and more workers in drug and medical supplies production increased by 2.1 percent annually, Tehran Chamber of Commerce told Trend Sept. 6.
In 2013, the number of drug production units improved by 10 percent year-on-year to reach 175. The number of the factories and workshops producing medical supplies, however, shrunk by 8 percent year-on-year in 2013 to reach 93.
During the nine-year period, employment in both drug and medical supplies sectors improved. In 2013, some 33,000 were employed in the two sectors, with the staff members of each company ranging at 148 in average.
Employment in drug production in 2013 jumped by 16 percent – an unprecedented rate over 10 years. In the same year, 16 new drug production units went on stream, each employing on average 223 workers.
The value added in drug production in Iran increased threefold in the nine years from 2004 to 2013.
The added value of drug production grew by 81 percent in 2013 to reach 31 trillion rials ($991 million at 31,269 rials per USD at today’s rate). Since inflation rate for that year was 32 percent, it can be said that the real added value had improved by 46 percent.
As the number of production units grew by 11 percent and employment in the sector by 16 percent in that year, it can be said that a great part of the added value improvement was due to the operation of new units.
The added value of drugs and medical supplies grew by 5.3 percent from 2004 to 2013. The value added of drug production stood at 2.3 trillion rials in 2013, showing a 2-percent improvement year-on-year. The greatest jump related to 2011, which was 37 percent.
The value of drug production over the mentioned nine years jumped by 26.5 percent, while that of medical supplies jumped by 23.3 percent.
In 2013, the value of produced drugs jumped by 73 percent year-on-year, to hit 64 trillion rials. However, due to an economic inflation rate of 32 percent, it can be said that the real value improvement of the drugs was 44 percent.
Against this, medical supplies product did not improve significantly. Even considering the inflation, it can be said the product fell in that year. The biggest jump of this sector came in 2012 at 61 percent.
In 2013, the value of drug production industry constituted 1.23 percent of the country’s entire industrial units with 10 and more workers.
For the same year, the share of medical supplies product was less than 1 percent and had seen some decline year-on-year.
The ration of added value to product value in 2013 was 47 percent for drug and 45 percent for medical supplies, much greater than the ratio of the country’s entire industry, which stood at 16 percent.
In 2015, Iran’s drug export suffered a decline of 37 percent year-on-year to reach $0.1 billion.
The most prominent customers were Afghanistan, Germany, Syria and Iraq.
Iran’s drug import dropped by 14 percent in 2012 year-on-year, but increased again by 24.7 percent in 2013, and again by 5.7 percent in 2014 to reach $2.1 billion.
Switzerland, Germany, the UAE and France were Iran’s main sources for drug imports.
Iran’s drug trade turnover from 2011 to 2014 stood on the negative side. In 2014, it was -$1.3 billion.