A drugstore in Iran
An Iranian lawmaker has warned about an impending medicine crisis following an inadequate budget allocation.
Homayoun Sameyah, a member of the Parliament's Health Commission, announced that the budget needed to procure medicine and medical equipment is 150 thousand billion tomans (nearly 3 billion USD), but the fund allocated by the government is less than half this figure.
“Our prediction is that in the coming months, the issue of medicine and medical equipment shortage will worsen,” he said on Monday.
Despite the warnings, Minister of Health Bahram Einollahi is underplaying the crisis, claiming that “most medicines are available, and there will be no problem regarding the supply of pharmaceuticals this year.”
Medicine shortages in more economically deprived areas of the country have already reached crisis point with medical staff at hospitals in the southeastern city of Zahedan citing shortages of IV fluid, insulin, and inhaler sprays.
In the last Iranian year, ending March 20, the medicine crisis intensified as people witnessed multifold increase in prices. The government scrapped an import subsidy for food and medications last year.
Although the national currency bounced back in the past month it is still down 50 percent compared to six months ago. The country imported around 100 million euros of medicines a month from Europe alone in 2022 and also large quantities from China and India.