The sanctions and boycotts imposed by certain western countries and the Zionist regime on the supply of medicine to Iran stimulated Tehran to make progress in drug production and move towards self-sufficiency in this field, the Iranian health minister said on Sunday.
“Giant drug-manufacturing companies, some of which are affiliated to the Zionists, have always played a role in (imposing) drug sanctions on Iran and these boycotts have been the main cause of Iran’s progress in drug production,” Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi said in a meeting with her visiting Lebanese counterpart Muhammad Jawad Khalifa.
Noting that Iran is now supplying 96% of its drug needs through domestic production, Vahid Dastjerdi described the sanctions imposed by the West against Tehran as the main incentive for the country’s progress in this field.
Elsewhere, she called for Lebanon and other Islamic countries’ cooperation with Iran in manufacturing drugs, and said the potentials of the Muslim world should be used in this regard so that “we can export medicine not only to the region but also to the rest of the world”.
Vahid Dastjerdi’s remarks came after Iran announced earlier this month that it plans to synthesize 20 kinds of radiomedicine inside the country, stressing that its scientists are capable of supplying the 20%-enriched uranium needed for the production of such drugs.
“Iran has gained the necessary preparedness to produce 20 radiomedicines and we will provide the 20% (enriched) fuel needed for the production of these medicines this year,” Deputy Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) for Planning, International and Parliamentary Affairs Massoud Akhavan-Fard told FNA.
Reminding that the Tehran research reactor has long been used for producing radiomedicines, he announced that Iran plans to build four other research reactors in the other parts of the country.
Fars News