Iran's drug prices are soaring, and some are becoming harder to find, leaving patients and their families struggling as a U.S. blockade and tougher sanctions weigh on the country's pharmaceutical industry, the Associated Press reported.
The cost of some drugs has tripled, further straining Iranians' finances seven months after the country's war with the United States and Israel began. Food and other essential goods have also skyrocketed amid rising unemployment, and the country's currency, which hit a record low this week, has lost half its value.
The war is becoming an economic test of endurance. Iran is trying to raise global energy prices by attacking oil transport routes in the region, while the United States, for its part, seeks to destroy Iran's economy by blocking its ports since June and imposing increasingly strict sanctions, the AP notes.
Iran's pharmaceutical industry is vulnerable because of its dependence on imported raw materials. So far, there are no signs of a serious shortage of drugs in Iranian hospitals, but shortages are showing up in pharmacies.
The country produces more than 80% of its medicines, according to official statistics, but many manufacturers are dependent on imported raw materials.
Before the war, most medicines and raw materials for their production were imported by sea, but the US naval blockade disrupted supplies, Bahman Sabour, a member of the Tehran Pharmaceutical Association, told local media.
Now, importers of raw materials for medicines use more expensive air routes. But those supplies are threatened by new US sanctions on a number of Iranian airlines, which have grounded some international flights.
The Iranian government has not said how much medicine production has fallen. However, authorities have said the pharmaceutical industry has been hit after airstrikes hit more than 40 pharmaceutical plants, including several that produce cancer drugs.
Meanwhile, Hossein Mohebbi, a spokesman for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), said the only way to end the war in Iran was for Washington to admit defeat and withdraw.
At a press conference in Tehran yesterday, he read a “letter to the American people.” The message was addressed to the American public just before the US midterm elections on November 3 - a vote in which President Donald Trump's Republican Party faces serious obstacles as it seeks to retain control of Congress.
Mohebi called on Americans to take to the streets and protest against Trump's decisions, criticizing the US's belligerent policies.
He accused Washington of using Iran's nuclear program as a pretext to "robber Iran's wealth" and turn the country "back into a colony".