In Iran, pharmacies keep more expensive medicines in a safe, and "ordinary" ones are not available. The war has made people stop filling the prescriptions they receive.
Sanctions, currency fluctuations and continued pressure on insurance companies have made access to medical care in Iran difficult for years. And the war launched by the US and Israel seems to have further exacerbated the problem: regional supply routes have been cut off, parts of the health infrastructure have been damaged, which has put the country's pharmaceutical market, which is already unstable enough, in an even more difficult situation.
All this has left its mark on the daily lives of Iranians: patients visit numerous pharmacies in search of medicines, while others simply refuse prescriptions because they cannot afford them.
Supply chains and sanctions
For a country like Iran, which relies on imported raw materials and medicines, delays and higher transportation costs quickly lead to shortages in the market and a surge in prices.
However, transportation is only part of the problem. Although medicines are technically exempt from sanctions, payment restrictions delay, complicate, and make supplies more expensive. This financial crisis has been plaguing Iran’s pharmaceutical sector for years, and in times of war it has become even more devastating. Rising prices, disrupted supply chains, damaged infrastructure and dwindling purchasing power form a worrying combination.
Iranian authorities are trying to reassure: they claim that strategic reserves and local production have prevented a total collapse. But the picture that patients, doctors and manufacturers are describing is very worrying.
Hadi Ahmadi, spokesman for the Iranian Pharmacists Association, warned that the war could lead to new shortages of materials needed for pharmaceutical production, including aluminum and petrochemical raw materials. If raw materials and packaging materials are missing, this could threaten production, he explained.
Patients stop buying medicines
The consequences are already being felt in clinics and pharmacies. A general practitioner in Iran told DW that some medicines have virtually disappeared since the war began, while others appear only sporadically or at significantly higher prices.
A cardiologist in Iran says prices have risen so much that some patients simply stop buying the medicines they need. A patient of his says that the pharmacy keeps the more expensive medicines in a safe. Medicines that were once in short supply have now become so expensive that many people can no longer afford them, he added.
These may be isolated cases, but they reflect a broader trend: the crisis is no longer limited to rare or highly specialized medicines, but is also beginning to affect essential medicines.
People are left without access to treatment
A relative of an elderly diabetic patient from the city of Rasht told DW that insulin is being rationed and is now being sold at six times the price it was a week ago.
Another patient who needs daily treatment for a chronic illness told DW that he only has 18 days' worth of medicine: "I have been going around pharmacies for six weeks, hoping to find my medicine, and every time I hear the same answer - we don't have it. Personally, I only take one medicine, but that's enough stress. I can't imagine what people who need multiple medications or who live with a serious or incurable illness are going through."
Some patients are already using social media and specialized groups to inform each other - for example, if a particular pharmacy still has a certain medicine in stock.
Before the war, some families relied on relatives abroad to send them medicines from neighboring countries or from Europe - through informal networks. Now, with tighter restrictions and weaker communication channels, even these backup options seem to be disappearing.