TEHRAN – President Ebrahim Raisi on Monday called for detailed plans to ensure a sustainable supply of pharmaceutical products and prevent seasonal shortages in the country.
In comments at a meeting of the Administration’s Economic Coordination Headquarters here, Raisi called on the health ministry and other responsible organizations to formulate detailed plans to meet medical needs and avert chronic shortages of pharmaceutical products.
The president also stressed the need to reduce the costs of treatment and allocate governmental subsidies to medicine.
The minister of health announced in the meeting that the shortage of a limited number of medicines that occurred in early autumn has been eased with the help of domestic producers and importers, stating that the reserves of medicines in Iran are in a suitable state.
In December 2022, Raisi said Iran’s capacity to produce 95 percent of its needed medicines domestically could turn the country into the region’s hub of pharmaceuticals.
The president’s call many provinces across Iran are grappling with a sharp drop in temperatures and winter storms.
The Center for Management of Natural Disasters said Monday the cold spell has affected large swathes of the country and many provinces have experienced temperatures of down to -29 degrees centigrade that is unprecedented in the past 14 years.
The director of the center said temperatures are now below the freezing points in 27 out of the 31 provinces of Iran and this has caused problems amid low natural gas supplies to certain parts of the country.
Ali Torkian said thanks to the lower consumption across the country that followed related calls by government and local officials, the shortage in the supply is being addressed.
Torkian said the interior minister and provincial governors had decided in an urgent meeting held Monday that the National Iranian Gas Company should immediately tackle the problem of low gas pressure in the eastern and northeastern provinces, which have borne the brunt of the cold snap, especially where supply to residential homes has been cut off over the past 24 hours.
The shortage has been attributed to a suspension in gas swap between Iran and Turkmenistan.
He said officials have been working hard to solve the problem of short supply and have held over 200 crisis management meetings and meetings of the energy working group over the past week.