Tehran – Biotechnology products account for the majority of Iranian drug exports, with a share of 60%.
Approximately 99% of pharmaceutical biotechnology products are manufactured domestically, Mehr’s news agency quotes Haleh Ahmadi, head of the Association of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology Producers and Exporters.
Biotechnology products are exported to 40 countries around the world, compared to 35 countries in the past Iranian calendar years (March 2024 to March 2025). Ahmadi said the export drugs are worth between $12 and $130 million.
The country has saved $5 billion thanks to drug biotech producers.
Currently, 45 pharmaceutical biotechnology products are produced in Iran, including medicines, kits and medical tools, Ahmadi adds.
Iran is the first Islamic country to rank in biotechnology
According to a recent report published by Scimago, Iran rose second in 2023 and was the first in Islamic countries to rank in 2024.
The country ranked 11th in the world in this category. Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Türkiye and Egypt ranked fifth in articles 1,008, 979, 839 and 802 respectively.
The report also includes rankings based on articles published between 1996 and 2024. Over the course of 28 years, Iran has 15,188 articles in biotechnology, first ranked in the region, followed by Turkey (10,973 articles) and Egypt (7,947 articles). Countries are ranked 15 worldwide.
In all subject areas and categories, the country ranks second in the region and 17th in the world, with 75,501 articles published in 2024.
Iran ranks second in the region and 19th in the world as it published 966,118 articles in all subject areas and categories from 1996 to 2024.
Self-sufficiency in medicine
Issues for medical and medical device production and self-sufficiency in these regions are one of the government’s priorities, Health Minister Mohammad Reza Zafarkandi said in March.
Medicine and medical devices are two important areas related to people’s health, he said, “We are trying to reach self-sufficiency for the supply of medicine and medical devices,” the IRNA reported.
On January 13, the head of the Iranian coalition of medical device manufacturers and exporters said that about $20 million worth of medical devices are exported to more than 60 countries a year.
The IRNA says it says more than 70% of medical devices and more than 100% of regular hospital beds are made in the country.
He added that more than 95% of certain ICUs and CCU beds and more than 85% of operating room medical devices, such as anesthesia devices and other equipment, are manufactured using cutting-edge technology in the country.
Yaqoubzadeh continues, saying that the country’s need for medical devices is between $3 billion and $4 billion a year, of which $1 billion is imported.
Approximately 600 medical device companies operate domestically and produce about 99% of the drugs supplied to the domestic market.
Domestic medical device manufacturers produce and supply over 10,000 types of medical devices to domestic and foreign markets. Today, various experimental equipment are manufactured at much lower prices than the same foreign product.
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