A new wave of drug price increases in Iran has catastrophically raised the cost of medical treatment. In one example alone, the cost of each chemotherapy cycle has risen from about 70 million rials two years ago to nearly 700 million rials. The increases affect everything from widely used generic medications to specialized drugs for patients with rare and chronic illnesses. Insurance providers have not increased their coverage in line with rising prices, forcing patients to pay the difference out of pocket.
Inflation in the healthcare sector has been significantly higher than overall inflation, reaching 15.6% in April, 23.1% in May, and 8.6% in June. In addition, the foreign currency allocation for medicines and medical equipment has been reduced from $3.5 billion to $3 billion.
Other factors behind rising healthcare costs include severe liquidity shortages, government-imposed price controls, delays in insurance reimbursements, fragile supply chains, and the forced shift in transporting medicines and raw materials from sea routes to land routes due to regional tensions resulting from the Iranian regime’s foreign policies, which has sharply increased transportation costs.
Months ago, pharmaceutical industry representatives warned that production could not continue without structural reforms, but the Iranian regime has taken no effective action. The main burden of soaring prices has fallen directly on patients.
The Iranian regime’s destructive foreign policies, which have resulted in extensive sanctions, proxy wars, and international isolation, have reduced foreign currency allocations and made transportation routes more expensive and less secure. At the same time, systemic corruption, economic mismanagement, government-imposed price controls, and the failure to allocate resources properly have pushed the pharmaceutical industry to the brink of collapse. As a result, cancer patients and people suffering from serious chronic illnesses now face an extremely critical situation. Many are abandoning treatment altogether, while others are selling their assets and taking on overwhelming debt, destroying their own lives and those of their families. This humanitarian disaster is unfolding while a large share of the country’s oil revenues and national resources is being spent on war, regional adventurism, domestic repression, and looting by regime institutions instead of being invested in public healthcare.
By continuing these failed policies, the Iranian regime is effectively condemning patients to death or extreme poverty and has plunged Iranian society into a deep healthcare crisis.
