Drug Shortages Linked to Early Wave of Flu 

Early increases in flu activity rocked the healthcare sector and caused widespread shortages in antibiotics, head of Iran’s Food and Drug Administration Heydar Mohammadi stated on Saturday. 
“Due to the decline in observance rates of health protocols, we faced influenza in September, which shook the market,” Mohammadi was quoted as saying by ISNA. 
Over the past two years and with the spread of Covid-19, a large portion of the population carefully followed safety measures such as facemask wearing and social distancing to curb transmission rates, which had also decreased flu rates. 
This year’s return to normalcy, mismanagement by authorities and an early flu season brought about severe shortages in the supply of antibiotics. 
“By the end of this week, we will not have a problem called antibiotic shortages,” Mohammadi said. “We promise the public they’ll soon have no concerns about medicine supplies.”
Domestic pharmaceutical companies are working three-shift schedules to produce the amount of medicine demanded by customers, according to the health official. 
Last week, Iran imported 50 tons of antibiotics from India to answer the sudden surge in demand for antibiotics. 
“A second shipment, including three to four million doses of various types of antibiotics will arrive into the country by plane by the end of this week,” Mohammadi pointed out. 

New Decisions

Mohammadi said that in the past three to four days, the government had adopted new measures to tackle the mayhem in the pharmaceutical industry. 
“If these decisions were made sooner, it could have prevented these shortages,” he noted. 
Delays in currency allocation and customs clearance were also some of the reasons behind the disruptions in drug supplies, Mohammadi said. 
He added, “We’re very optimistic that we’ll return to things as they were over the next few weeks.”
Mohammadi also asked physicians to be more careful in prescribing antibiotics for a viral disease. 
“Influenza is a viral disease and medications for viral diseases should be prescribed first. That treatment is not antibiotics,” he said. 
Health Minister Bahram Einollahi has been summoned to the parliament to respond to lawmakers’ questions about the recent disruptions in the healthcare sector.