The price hikes come as many Iranians are already struggling to cope with an economic crisis driven by years of sanctions, mismanagement and, more recently, war-related damage and supply-chain disruptions.
The US dollar passed 1.81 million rials on Iran’s open market on Wednesday, rising nearly 8% in a single day as the country’s economic crisis worsened under the strain of maritime blockade, stalled diplomacy and mounting pressure on households.
A review of around 200 medicines found that prices in many cases have more than doubled since before Nowruz, while pharmacists say the prices of roughly 5,000 branded medicines have changed and more are being added to the list each day.
The surge comes as the US blockade of Iranian ports and the Strait of Hormuz remains in place despite President Donald Trump’s extension of a temporary ceasefire with Tehran earlier this month.
At the same time, citizens in several cities have repeatedly reported shortages of essential medicines in pharmacies, including drugs for heart disease, neurological disorders and cancer treatment.
In one case, a citizen reported shortages of the anti-clotting drug Plavix at Tehran’s Rajaei Hospital, a major cardiac centre.
Among the steepest increases were insulin products. Iranian-made insulin pens rose from around 205,000 tomans to 640,000 tomans, while foreign brands such as NovoMix and NovoRapid jumped from around 240,000 tomans to 890,000 tomans.
One doctor told Iran International the cost of medicine has risen so sharply that many patients can no longer afford their prescriptions.
A citizen whose wife has metastatic cancer said a drug she needs every 21 days rose from 65 million tomans for the first doses to 114 million tomans by the fifth.
Prices for some specialist and cancer drugs have also climbed sharply. Filgrastim, used by chemotherapy patients to stimulate white blood cell production, more than doubled in price from around 3.2 million tomans to 6.6 million.
Rituximab, used to treat lymphoma, blood cancers and autoimmune diseases, rose by more than 11%, while trastuzumab, a targeted breast cancer treatment, saw a similar increase—adding millions of tomans to already high treatment costs.
Deputy Health Minister Ali Jafarian on April 28 denied a “serious” medicine shortage and attributed rising prices to inflation and fluctuations in the free-market exchange rate.
He said the removal of subsidized currency in 1404 had worsened the impact, with around 70% of medicine production costs now tied to the open market exchange rate.
Prices of general medicines and over-the-counter products have also risen sharply. A review of 46 common medicines found average price increases of around 90%, while some supplements and vitamins rose by more than 200%.
Many Iranians say the shortages and soaring costs are forcing impossible choices, with one report suggesting treatment for even a simple cold can now cost around two million tomans.
