In continuation of the medicine crisis in Iran, Mohammad Jamalian, a member of the Health and Treatment Commission in the Iranian regime’s Majlis (parliament), announced that in the “coming months,” medicine shortages will be seen with “greater intensity.”
Jamalian issued this warning in an interview with the state-run ILNA news agency, which was published on Friday, February 21.
Jamalian said, “The medicine production cycle has been disrupted, and even if the situation is corrected today, it will take four months to compensate for this deficiency. For this reason, unfortunately, in the coming months, we will see medicine shortages with greater intensity.”
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Speaking about the cause of the disruption in the medicine production cycle in the country, Jamalian said, “Social Security Insurance, due to not receiving its claims from the government, has been unable to pay the claims of pharmacies and private centers. Pharmacies have not paid pharmaceutical companies, and companies have also not paid importers.”
This situation has arisen while medicine production in the country depends on importing raw materials from foreign countries.
This MP, noting that currently “between 350 to 400 types” of medicine are in shortage, said: “Our concern is that in the coming months, we will again reach a stage where essential medicines and those whose consumption is a matter of life and death for patients will become scarce.”
The warning from this Majlis member was published while some social media users wrote on Friday that soon insurance companies will stop covering medicine costs.
In this regard, Jamalian confirmed that pharmacies are not accepting Social Security Insurance.
As he stated, “Pharmacies have announced that from February 20, they will no longer accept Social Security Insurance booklets. In some provinces, this date has been set for February 22, and in others, March 5.”
It was previously reported that while the price of some medicines has increased up to fourfold, insurance companies and the government are blaming each other and refusing to take responsibility for the issue.
The warning about the worsening medicine shortage in the country was published less than ten days after a revelation that the Iranian Pharmacists Association had sent a letter to the regime’s Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, warning about the medicine crisis caused by the failure of Social Security Organization and insurance companies to pay pharmacies’ claims.
The letter emphasized that the Social Security Organization had only paid 8.8% of pharmacies’ claims, which is not sufficient to cover their operating costs.
Mohammad Jamalian also had no good news regarding this matter: “When the Social Security Health Management was present in the commission two days ago, they announced that the Social Security account is empty.”
In its letter, the Pharmacists Association requested the Supreme National Security Council to take urgent action to resolve this crisis to prevent disruptions in medicine supply for patients and to safeguard public health.
A member of the board of directors of the Iranian Pharmacists Association stated on January 26 that the increase in the price of some medicines has caused “shock” among the people, and out of every ten people who enter pharmacies, three do not purchase any medicine.
