An Official from Food and Drug Organization Says Unprecedented Drug Shortage in Iran is ‘Incorrect Narrative’

While on Tuesday the vice president of the Iranian Pharmacists Association reported an unprecedented drug shortage in Iran, the director general of drugs and controlled substances at the Food and Drug Organization says that the unprecedented nature of the drug shortage in the country is an “incorrect narrative in statistical reporting”.

According to the IRNA news agency on Wednesday, December 24, Haidar Mohammadi emphasized: “The transparency of the Food and Drug Organization in communicating certain regulations should not lead to distortion of facts and public concerns.” According to him, the current drug shortages in the country amount to 40 items, but previously it was “300 to 400 items.”

This statement from the Health Ministry official comes as Ibrahim Raisi, the President of Iran, has simultaneously ordered the Health Ministry to “urgently” follow up on any drug shortage and possible price increases.

Ali Fatemi, vice president of the Iranian Pharmacists Association, on Tuesday, December 23, referring to the fact that drug shortages among 30 to 40 items, mostly imported, have always existed, told the ISNA news agency that currently there are between 100 to 150 items of drug shortages, both imported and domestically produced, in Iran, and drugs such as very simple antibiotics that have been manufactured in Iran for decades have become scarce and unavailable.

Also, Mohammad Reza Vazhegh Mahallati, chairman of the Iranian Health Economics Association, told the ILNA news agency about the increase in drug prices due to the conversion of the 4,200 toman exchange rate to the free market rate, saying that economic calculations show that this exchange rate conversion “increases the price of domestically produced drugs by 4 times and imported drugs by 7 times.”

The chairman of the Iranian Health Economics Association says that the elimination of the 4,200 toman exchange rate from the budget bill of the thirteenth government for 1401 is equivalent to a decrease in the value of the national currency and contradicts the country’s macro policies based on maintaining the value of the national currency. In his opinion, the government wants to cover its budget deficit through this action.

Source: Voice of America