Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

Iran plans to sign an agreement with other countries on import of drugs for the treatment of rare diseases.

The director of the Rare Diseases Foundation of Iran, Ali Davoudian, told a press conference that such drugs for rare diseases are needed in Iran, Mehr news agency reported.

Davoudian urged the Ministry of Health to provide the foundation with the necessary licenses for medicine imports as soon as possible.

"Hopefully soon, the Ministry of Health will grant permission to import these drugs," he said. "European countries are ready to produce and distribute these drugs in Iran."

Davoudian also said the Rare Diseases Foundation of Iran has reached agreement with some European countries to import the required medicine.

Further, Davudian said pharmaceutical companies consider the production of such drugs cost-ineffective, and therefore there is a lack of such medicine in the country.

He added that there are about 15,000 patients in Iran who have cards confirming their rare diseases, and they can use the services of the Rare Diseases Foundation.

Besides, Iranian Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi said that Iran is prepared to maintain close cooperation with Russia in the medical and pharmaceutical fields.

His remarks came after a meeting with the visiting Russian Health Minister Veronika Skvortsova.

Rahimi said that "despite sanctions and pressures imposed on the Iranian nation by big powers, Iran has made considerable progress" in the medical and pharmaceutical fields and it meets 97 percent of its medical needs on its own.

Iran, whose pharmaceutical sector amounts to some $3 billion per year, imports about 30% of its medicine and is relying increasingly on China and India, as U.S. sanctions close the door to business with U.S. and European drug firms, whose exports to Iran fell 30% in 2012.

In some cases, finding substitute drugs to fight certain diseases, such as hemophilia, cancer, or multiple sclerosis, is impossible because heavily guarded patents make them unavailable except from Western sources.

Iran imported $1.6 billion worth of medicines and medical equipment in the first nine months of the current Iranian calendar year, which started March 20, 2012.

Iran's medicine imports accounted for $1 million in this period.

The Central Bank of Iran reported last month that Iranian banks allocated $2.8 billion for medicine purchases in the first ten months of the current Iranian calendar year.

In order to meet Iranian patients' demands, some $2.5 billion should be allocated for medicine purchases by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2013), the Head of the Iranian Parliament's Health Committee, Hossein Ali Shahriari, said in November 2012.

With the impact of international sanctions on Iran, the country started experiencing certain problems with imports of medicines, though the sanctions do not affect such items as food and medicine.

Human rights lawyers argue that imposing bans against major Iranian banks has made conducting financial transactions to buy pharmaceutical products extremely difficult.

However, US officials say that the international and US sanctions do not target medicine and food and Iran has its own specific problems that cause lack of medicine and food in the country. They say the problems that cause the lack of medicine are related to corruption and mismanagement of pharmaceutical supply chains.

US President Barack Obama earlier said that the Iranians should blame their leaders for the medical supply shortages.

On the other hand, despite Washington's statements that sanctions have no humanitarian consequences, recent data released by the U.S. Department of Commerce showed that exports of pharmaceutical products to Iran have decreased by half.

According to the data released on February 8, pharmaceuticals exports decreased to $14.8 million from $31.1 million in 2011, while the total exports increased by 9 percent due to a rise in agricultural exports.

Exports of vitamins, medicinal and botanical drugs decreased to $4.9 million from $10.8 million in 2011, while sales of surgical appliances and supplies in 2012 fell to $2.4 million from $3.7 million in the previous year.

Also, a report published by the U.S.-based Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars said U.S.-led sanctions against Iran are the main reason behind the shortage of life-saving medical supplies and medicines in the country.

The report concludes that the sanctions have closed off banking channels for medicine exports to Iran and prevented euros and US dollars from being accessible to Iranians for trade, causing a medicine shortage.

At the beginning of 2012, the United States and the European Union imposed new sanctions on Iran's oil and financial sectors with the goal of preventing other countries from purchasing Iranian oil and conducting transactions with the Central Bank of Iran.

The sanctions were imposed on Iran based on the accusation that the country is pursuing non-civilian objectives in its nuclear energy program. However, Iran rejects the allegations, arguing that as a committed signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency, it has the right to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.