Iran is among the five countries producing genetic kits across the world despite US-led sanctions hampering the Islamic Republic’s efforts to acquire the state-of-the-art medical technology, a senior Iranian health official says.
Masoud Qadi-Pasha, the vice president of the Iranian Forensic Medicine Organization’s laboratory department, made the statement on Sunday as he pointed to cruel sanctions by the West that prevented Iran from importing genetic kits and the Islamic Republic’s long-time efforts to become self-sufficient in the high-tech field.
“We used to be an importer of genetic kits that would not enter the country due to the West’s brutal sanctions,” Qadi-Pasha said. “With the policy of the [Iranian] Judiciary and Forensic Medicine… all genetic kits are produced in the organization, which has made Iran recognized as one of the five countries producing genetic kits in the world.”
Stressing that the quality of Iranian kits outmatches that of foreign genetic kits in some items, the officials said, “Today, we have been exempted from exporting 70% of consumables in the genetics sector, and we are trying to produce 30% of the imported items by the end of the year, and to have exports soon after self-sufficiency.”
Qadi-Pasha also pointed to Forensic Medicine Organization’s policy of being up-to-date in scientific fields, saying toxicology laboratories are active in 31 Iranian provinces and two other provinces will soon complete their toxicology labs.
Heidar Mohammadi, the head of Iran’s Food and Drug Administration, hailed on Friday the country’s progress in the fields of medical science and pharmaceutical industry despite the sanctions, announcing the export of Iranian-developed medicines to 40 countries across the world.
Mohammadi, who is also the deputy minister of health, said a threefold increase in the export of Iranian pharmaceuticals bespeaks the country’s good interaction with the neighboring countries.
Iranian authorities have repeatedly blamed the sanctions for a shortage of medicines that treat special diseases such as cancer.
Health experts have warned that the harm caused by the sanctions on Iran’s access to medicine supplies may get worse.
That comes as the Iranian government has tried to circumvent the sanctions and import the drugs from suppliers that normally charge exorbitant prices. The scarcity has prompted the Iranian medical experts to depend on the country’s domestic capacities and wean the Islamic Republic from importing health products by manufacturing indigenous ones.
