Drug Importers Union: Medicine Shortage Due to Health Ministry Interference

Following reports of medicine shortages in various cities and provinces, the vice president of the Drug Importers Union attributed the main cause to strict intervention and control by the Ministry of Health.

Mojtaba Burburour told ILNA news agency on Tuesday, February 16: “The overly stringent policies of the Ministry of Health have created current problems and shortages, to the extent that the Ministry of Health has also taken control of the distribution sector.”

This situation comes as, according to Burburour, the Ministry of Health and the Food and Drug Organization have halted the process of presenting statistics on drug supply rates, and “transparency has declined.”

The vice president of the Drug Importers Union also stated that drugs in Iran are either manufactured domestically or produced using imported raw materials within the country, adding: “The shortages that exist in the market today come from both pathways.”

This pharmaceutical market activist previously called claims by some government officials about self-sufficiency in domestic production of pharmaceutical raw materials “false” and stated that “80 to 90 percent of these materials are imported from India and China.”

The Drug Importers Union also commented on the Ministry of Health’s role in the drug shortage, saying: “Previously, if a hundred units of goods were given to distribution companies, now the Ministry of Health says they must be given to locations that this ministry designates, and such an approach could disrupt the balance of supply and demand and create access problems.”

Increases in drug prices, shortages and unavailability of certain items at different times, and the creation of black markets for them in recent months have faced many patients and their families with serious problems.

Meanwhile, speculation about the possible elimination of the 4,200 toman exchange rate subsidy in the 1401 budget bill has caused another surge in prices of many pharmaceutical items.

Source: Radio Farda