Four tech projects in the fields of pharmaceuticals and agriculture have recently come on stream in three provinces, which will help curb the country’s reliance on foreign supply.
Supported and financed by the Vice Presidential Office for Science and Technology, the projects were inaugurated by President Hassan Rouhani via videoconference on Thursday, the office’s website Isti.ir reported.
The move is part of the government's initiative to launch 200 industrial, mining and trade plans worth 1.69 quadrillion rials ($5.72 billion) and create 41,000 jobs across the country by the end of the current fiscal year (March 2021).
The first project launched by Rouhani was a production line for two plasma-derived medicinal products, Albumin and immunoglobulin, in Alborz Province.
Present at the inaugural meeting, Sorena Sattari, the vice president for science and technology, said the two products are currently imported from Germany and Austria.
“A 50 mg vial of the components is worth €200, hence the local production of the two medical matters will significantly slash capital flight,” he added.
The other project, launched in the province, was a bio-fertilizer production line.
Sattari said chemical fertilizers should be gradually replaced with eco-friendly counterparts.
“This is of high importance for raising the quality of crops and reducing the human-induced damage to the environment,” he added.
Noting that Iran annually imports $200 million of hybrid seeds, Sattari said, “Six knowledge-based companies and tech firms have been assigned to work on the local production of seeds.”
Hybrid seed production is predominant in modern agriculture and home gardening. It is one of the main contributors to the dramatic rise in agricultural output during the last half of the 20th century.
During the videoconference event, Rouhani also launched a Tehran-based production line of vaccine for human papillomavirus (HPV), causing a sexually transmitted infection.
Pointing to the fact that HPV is the most lethal disease after breast cancer among women, Sattari said the local production of HPV vaccine can help protect a large segment of society from the disease.
He added that private high-tech medical companies are working on the production of five more vaccines for human diseases, which efforts are expected to deliver results in a year.
The last inaugurated project was a production line for sertraline in Markazi Province. Sertraline is an antidepressant in a group of drugs called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors.
The drug affects chemicals in the brain that may be unbalanced in people with depression, panic, anxiety, or obsessive-compulsive symptoms.
Last year, sertraline worth $27 million was imported, Sattari said, adding that the local production of the pharmaceutical composition will save a huge amount of money.
Speaking at the event, Rouhani said the inauguration of national tech projects illustrates the development of the technology ecosystem in different fields.
“Knowledge-based companies have played an important role in the country’s scientific and technological growth. The government will continue support for the tech ecosystem with maximum capacity,” he added.
Stressing that the number of tech firms and knowledge-based companies has seen significant growth over the past years, the president said, “It is a relief that talented and professional graduates can form teams and have access to shared working spaces to flourish their innovation and capabilities.”
These projects increase the prospects of Iran becoming self-sufficient in medical and agricultural fields.
“The government is ready to set the required policies and offer facilities for boosting the activities of technology ecosystem,” he said.
Tech Ecosystem Fighting Covid-19
Since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in the country in February, Iran’s healthcare sector has been working harder to use the technology ecosystem’s untapped potentials to ward off Covid-19.
In late August, Tehran University of Medical Sciences and Amir Kabir University of Technology jointly held an online startup event titled “Technology at the Service of Health”, seeking solutions for offsetting deficiencies in the country’s healthcare sector.
At the event, hospitals facing a shortage of medical equipment presented a list of their requirements, including personal protection tools like facemasks and clinical devices, including oxygen generators, Covid-19 test kits and ventilators.
Tech units also introduced their latest achievements, services and products in the sphere of medical technology.
According to the organizers, such events should be held more frequently in case they prove to be beneficial.
At the gathering, MAPVA Industrial Group—a Tehran-based tech center, introduced a blood oxygen meter developed by the group.
The oxygen meter has a clip-like device called a probe that is placed on a body part, such as a finger or earlobe. The probe uses light to measure how much oxygen is in the blood.
Synapse, a tech firm at Samsung AUT Tech (a substitute of Amir Kabir University of Technology), was the other knowledge-based group present at the conference. Specialized in equipping hospitals with smart technologies, the firm converts the documented information of visiting patients and converts them into digital data.
The database is connected to Synapse’s smartphone application called “InLab” that can be used by physicians and other medical staff. The app gives the doctors full remote access and helps them review patients’ test results and write prescriptions.
Nano Khavar industrial group, producer of nanotechnology respiratory masks, and Parsian Mehr Group, producer of air purifying filters, also introduced their products to hospitals.
Provincial Attainments
The tech ecosystem’s efforts to strengthen the medical sector is not limited to the capital city. Similar initiatives for strengthening ties between the firms and medical centers have been launched in other cities and provinces.
The northeastern province of Golestan will house the third factory producing medical oxygen in the near future, the head of provincial industries, mining and trade organization, affiliated to the namesake ministry, said.
Meeting heads of several knowledge-based companies on Thursday, Hossein Toloueian added that the factory will boost the oxygen supply for medical centers.
He added that the two operating firms have the capacity to produce around 1,000 hospital oxygen capsules, 40 kilograms each, per day.
“The private sector has invested 200 billion rials ($678,000) in the project,” Toloueian said.
With the increasing number of Covid-19 infections in the province, Toloueian added that hospitals' demand for health-protective products is rising.
“Followed by the state and the private sector’s support for knowledge-based companies, the local production of disinfectants has increased from 15,000 to 100,000 liters per day,” he said.
“In pre-Covid days, the province had zero respiratory mask production. Local firms now make 300,000 masks per day. The current capacity can be boosted to 500,000 masks daily.”
All the way to the west, a knowledge-based company in Kermanshah Province has fulfilled the local hospitals’ requirement for facemasks.
Touraj Shirzadian, an official with Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, said the company produces a variety of facemasks, including three-layer, N95 and N99.
Shirzadian said the company’s output reaches 20,000 masks per day, which meets the demand of the province’s medical staff and official employees.
Extending efficient health protection against Covid-19 is a priority of Iranian officials. The government, however, has put great efforts into developing the technology ecosystem for bridging the shortfalls.
The state’s support has reportedly paid off, as startups and tech firms are helping boost the production capacities of high-tech medical items.
By Oct. 4, the coronavirus has taken the lives of 26,746 people out of 468,119 positive cases in the country.
According to Iran’s Health Ministry, 387,675 patients have so far recovered from the disease.
