News

Head of Iran Pharmaceutical Union says the Islamic Republic exports about $100 million worth of medicines to 30 countries per year.

Gholamreza Shariati made the remark on Tuesday on the sidelines of Iran Health Exhibition in Tehran, noting that the Islamic Republic will witness a considerable growth in its drug exports in the current Iranian calendar year (started March 21), Fars news agency reported.

The official stated that Iran can now produce more than 2,500 different medicines in the country, meeting over 96 percent of its pharmaceutical
needs.

Shariati went on to say that eight pharmaceutical companies, able to produce recombinant drugs, will come on stream by March 2012.

According to Abbas Saheb Qaddam Lotfi, the head of the Iranian Biotechnology Development Center, currently 12 recombinant drugs are produced in Iran.

Recombinant drugs are a group of medications such as human insulin produced using recombinant DNA techniques to generate proteins for the treatment of a wide range of diseases.