Baku, Azerbaijan, June 28
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
Iran's health ministry has not issued any permission for producing morphine, heroine, and nicotine vaccines, Mehdi Pirsalehi, an official with the health ministry said.
He made the remarks while reacting to a recent statement by Alireza Jazini, the deputy secretary general of Iran's Drug Fight Headquarters claiming the mentioned vaccines have been successfully tested on humans and animals.
So far the health ministry has not issued any preliminary license on the issue, Pirsalehi, who serves as director general of the Drug Assessment office of the Food and Drug Organization, said, Iran's ISNA news agency reported June 28.
"Testing the vaccines on humans is illegal," he said. "No one is permitted to test any drug on humans before receiving initial permissions."
It was reported that the claimed morphine vaccine was tested in jails and among drug addicted people for many years and has registered successful results, meanwhile the health ministry regulations should be already fulfilled on the issue, Pirsalehi said.
On June 27, Jazini urged the health ministry to issue the permission as soon as possible for using the aforementioned vaccines to immune vulnerable people.
He further said that the vaccines which were produced by the Pasteur Institute of Iran will be sold at low prices.
Rouzbeh Kardouni, the head of Social Vulnerabilities Office at the Ministry of Cooperatives Labor and Social Welfare earlier said that annually about 450 metric tons of opium are consumed in Iran, which is equal to 42 percent of total opium consumption in the world.
The official further said that over 1.3 million people suffer drug addiction in the Islamic Republic.
According to the official estimates, the fight against drugs annually cost Iran about $1 billion.
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