Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 10
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
About 800,000 Iranian patients use homemade radio- medicines, Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) said, the country's official IRNA news agency reported Feb. 10.
He said that his organization has extended its activities to health, industry and agriculture areas.
Salehi made the remarks during the ceremony of unveiling homemade tubular centrifuge at the pharmaceutical research center Pasteur Institute.
The centrifuge is used in the production of recombinant drugs.
Pasteur Managing Director Mostafa Qanei said that the new centrifuge is an enhancement of an older domestically made version that the center used for the production of recombinant drugs and vaccines.
Salehi also said that the AEOI plans to cooperate with the country's health ministry for building a special hospital for treatment of patients that need nuclear medicine.
Last year, Behrouz Kamalvandi, a spokesman with the AEOI said that the country will start building the hospital in current Iranian calendar year (started on March 21, 2014), however it has been delayed so far.
The private sector will participate in the project, he underlined, adding that the center will be under supervision of the AEOI.
The US and its Western allies suspect Iran of developing a nuclear weapon - something that Iran denies. The Islamic Republic has on numerous occasions stated that it does not seek to develop nuclear weapons, using nuclear technology for electricity generation and medical purposes instead.
Edited by CN
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