IranScience

Iran Becomes 4th Top Producer of Remdesivir in World

Iran has ranked among the first four producers of the anti-coronavirus medicine, Remdesivir, after the US, China, and India, an industry expert announced.

The Remdesivir drug is produced by an Iranian knowledge-based company in Iran and can be exported to the foreign market, Deputy Managing Director of the knowledge-based company Mohammad Ali Maleki said in the inauguration ceremony of producing Remdesivir Medicine in Saveh County in Markazi province.

The company is ready to mass-produce the drug after approval by the Food and Drug Administration and will be available to the local hospitals following its mass production, he underlined.

Maleki pointed out that Iranian Remdesivir medicine has been formulated and produced to cure COVID-19 patients and is currently undergoing legal registration with the Food and Drug Administration to enter the market.

Due to severe side effects, the drug should be prescribed by specialists and the medicine should be only used in the hospitals of the country, he added.

Maleki said that meeting the internal needs is his company’s priority, which by obtaining the necessary permits, the company can pave the way for exporting the product.

In relevant remarks on Tuesday, Iranian Health Minister Saeed Namaki said that the sanctions imposed by US President Donald Trump’s administration have deprived people in Iran of access to medicine even during the coronavirus outbreak.

“The US has committed the worst cruelty in history against the Iranian nation during the coronavirus outbreak despite the claim that medicine is not in the list of sanctions,” Namaki said.

He reiterated that the US claim that the supply of drugs and medical equipment to Iran is not under sanction is no more than a lie.

Namaki, meantime, appreciated the Iranian knowledge-based companies for their efforts to meet the country’s needs to medicine, mask and gowns to fight against the coronavirus, and said that these firms could not only satiate the domestic needs, but also export their products in less than 50 days after the COVID-19 virus outbreak started.

In relevant remarks on Sunday, Namaki had also lashed out at Washington for lying about unimpeded export of medicine and vaccine supplies to Iran.

“The US is one of the most vicious and cowardly governments in the world which has blocked everything and their claim to exempt the purchase of drugs and medical equipment from sanctions is a lie,” Namaki said, addressing a ceremony to inaugurate medical projects in the Eastern province of South Khorassan.

“They deprive the weakest and most needy people of medicine, and it is just a sheer lie to say that they have no ban on medicine, vaccines and many other things,” he added.

Meantime, Namaki said that despite the harshest-ever sanctions imposed by the US, Iran will inaugurate 10,000 hospital beds by the yearend (March 20).

The Iranian foreign ministry declared earlier this year that despite Washington’s claims of cooperation to transfer drugs to Iran via the new Swiss-launched payment mechanism, the US is troubling the process amid the coronavirus outbreak in the country.

Although US claims that medicines and medical equipment are not under sanctions, they have practically blocked the transfer of Iran’s financial resources in other countries into the Swiss Humanitarian Trade Arrangement (SHTA), former Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Seyed Abbas Mousavi said.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on September 12 blasted the US administration for blocking the country’s efforts to receive loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to fight against coronavirus, saying that the American officials have forgotten humanity.

“We demanded the IMF for $5bln to assist us during the coronavirus outbreak for vaccine and medicine; all parties have voiced their agreement, but the US does not allow us to take the loan. They have distanced themselves from humanity to such an extent,” Rouhani said.

He added that even the friendly states whose banks are holding Iran’s money have been pressured by the US not to provide the country with access to its assets.

“History has not witnessed such a crime, as you may not find any other country that cannot withdraw money from foreign banks to purchase and import medicine for its people,” Rouhani said.

He, meantime, said that the Americans are angry with the Iranian government’s appropriate management of the coronavirus outbreak despite the harshest-ever sanctions imposed on the country.

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