Iran has no legal restrictions on importing medical equipment from China and medical firms would be permitted to import if safety and high performance standards are fulfilled, Alireza Soleimani head of the Medical Equipment Department of Iran’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said.
Highlighting the strict rules guiding quality, safety and performance in importing food and medicine and issuing the relevant permits, he said, “Pharmaceuticals produced in developed countries with high technology normally pass the quality assessment tests and businesses are encouraged to trade with firms in such countries to minimize risks associated with low quality medicine and equipment.”
Although consumers have a negative view of most Chinese products due largely to the high imports of China-made household appliances of inferior quality in the past, he said, “Made in China does not necessarily mean inferior quality,” Mehr News Agency reported.
Implying support for Chinese products that have saturated the Iranian market for years, especially after the West imposed stringent economic and banking sanctions due to Iran’s nuclear energy program, Soleimani said “We can regard low cost of Chinese products as their competitive advantage that can help us reduce costs of medical equipment.”
While 50 percent of domestic medical equipment needs are met by Iranian manufacturers, and the rest is imported, with appropriate import policy “we can benefit from high quality Chinese equipment at lower cost,” he concluded.
Self Efficiency in Producing Medicine
Recently several vital domestically-made medicines for patients suffering from certain diseases including cancer and MS have been unveiled in the country.
Iranian pharmaceutical companies have taken great steps and now the country should not limit itself to the domestic market. Iran today even exports drugs to its neighboring countries as well as India and china.
The drugs produced in Iran enjoy a high quality at a price one-fourth of their rival foreign products. ‘’A version of a drug for lung cancer treatment produced in Iran costs one fourth of the original brand and the same goes for other drugs that we produce in Iran,” says Seyed Hasan Ghazizadeh Hashemi, Iranian health minister. The country plans to raise its exports of life-saving drugs to $1500 million in a decade’s time, he added.
