Iran Pharmaceutical Market

Iran is a developing country in middle east which has experienced some politicaland economical turbulence during the past decades. government ofiran, after the 1979islamic revolution, has devoted considerable resources on national health, includingthe pharmaceutical sector. as a result, health indicators have improved substantiallyover the past two decades and the availability and affordability of medicines have alsobeen greatly improved. in order to fulfill the moh mission in providing access to asufficient quantity of safe, effective and high quality medicines that are affordablefor all population, after the 1979 islamic revolution iran has adopted a full genericbased medicine system and local production of medicines and vaccines has becomeone of the main goals of the national drug policy. government of iran has investedconsiderably on the pharmaceutical industry over the past decades. however, itseems that this investment, mainly due to the lack of r&d activities and unanimoussubsidies, has not been proportionately fruitful for iran's health system. iran drugmarket, especially in recent years, experienced a sharp growth and in 2004 the valueof the market, including direct government subsidies to the imported medicines,became over usd1.2bn. the market has increased annually, on average more than30% , during 1993-2003.