Baku, Azerbaijan, April 22
By Elnur Baghishov – Trend:
Iran should keep the export of medicines in focus, Mehdi Pirsalehi, Deputy Minister of Healthand Head of the Food and Drug Administration of Iran (FDA), said during the opening ceremony of a production plant of the Actover pharmaceutical company, Trend reports referring to ISNA.
According to Pirsalehi, Iran should move towards exporting medicines. He stated that foreign versions of 540 types of medicines, which are currently produced in Iran, were imported in the beginning of the previous Iranian year (started March 21, 2018).
During the second half of the year, however, the imports dropped by 100 types of medicines, Pirsalehi added. "This trend will continue this year. At present, about $160 million are spent on the import of the foreign versions of the medicines produced in the country," he said.
Pirsalehi went on to say that local production companies are able to produce these types of medicines of good quality. Imports of those drugs that will be manufactured locally will be suspended this year.
Noting that about 42 billion units of medicines are consumed in Iran annually, the head of the FDA said that Iran's largest manufacturers produced 2.5-3 million units of medicines. "With the commissioning of the Actover plant, 6 billion units of pharmaceuticals will be added to the country's production covering about 15 percent of the country's pharmaceutical market," he said.
25 million euros were spent on the construction of the plant of the Actover pharmaceutical company. Operating on a 4.2-hectare are, the plant employs 300 people. The plant will produce 120 types of medicines, at over 6 billion units annually.
In total, more than 3,000 workers are employed in Actover. The company produces more than 190 types of medicines for the treatment of 14 diseases.
