The hospitalization of Sina Alikhani, a young person suffering from Superior mesenteric artery (SMA), in Iran due to the lack of medication and the release of a video of him lying on a hospital bed has once again drawn attention to the importance of providing medication for specific diseases and the indifference of Iranian authorities to this issue.
After releasing a video of himself requesting the provision of medication for SMA patients in front of the regime’s parliament, Sina Alikhani became known as the “SMA Patient Ambassador.”
Sina recently stated in one of his Instagram posts that after two years and three meetings with the regime’s President, Ebrahim Raisi, he is still deprived of the necessary medication.
Morteza Alikhani, Sina’s father, told the regime’s IRNA news agency that some patients’ conditions become critical, and they lose their lives due to the lack of medication.
In December 2021, when a group of SMA patients’ families gathered in front of the parliament for several days, Ebrahim Raisi went among them and promised to resolve their problems soon.
Last week, once again, a group of SMA patients gathered in front of the Presidential office and protested against the shortage of a medication that was being distributed in limited quantities among SMA patients due to insufficient budget and the “negligence” of the regime’s authorities.
In the midst of all this, the Iranian regime and official media have repeatedly attributed problems in the field of treatment and healthcare to sanctions. However, contrary to these claims, medication and medical supplies have always been exempted from sanctions and could be procured and imported as exceptions.
The state-run Sharq newspaper reported in a coverage of this gathering that the Ministry of Health claimed to “localize” medication in Iran.
Saeed Azamian, the CEO of the SMA Patients Association, says, “The Ministry of Health has no plan other than the vague claim of localizing medication, which is very ambiguous and non-transparent, to provide medication for patients.”
The problem of drug shortages in Iran
The problem of drug shortages and high treatment costs in Iran is not exclusive to SMA patients.
Hamidreza Adraki has announced that there are about 1.5 to 2 million rare disease patients in the country, and so far, 6,500 of them have been registered.
Experts consider SMA to be the most expensive rare disease in Iran.
In addition to specific medications for this disease, the use of pain relievers and rehabilitation therapies to improve the quality of life for these patients in Iran is also limited due to high costs.
On the other hand, due to mobility limitations, patients have to use electric wheelchairs, which are estimated to cost over 400 million rials (approximately $793).
The CEO of the Rare Diseases Foundation in Iran has reported an increase in the number of these diseases in the country, stating that they have reached from 422 to 433 types.
The restriction in the supply and access to medication in Iran affects a wider range of individuals every day, and even in cases where the government claims to provide and import medication, according to media reports, patients receive nothing but low-quality drugs.
Since November-December 2022, no foreign currency has been allocated for the procurement of raw materials for drugs or medical equipment.
Due to the lack of currency allocation, shortages have emerged in all sectors of the pharmaceutical industry, and even the supply of simple medications has become problematic.
At present, vital medications such as amiodarone for heart conditions, clopidogrel for preventing blood clots usually used after a heart attack, and inhaler capsules for asthma and bronchitis are also scarce.
Superior mesenteric artery (SMA) syndrome is a rare condition that involves compression of the third portion of the duodenum which is the upper part of the small intestines just past the stomach. This condition occurs when the third part of the duodenum is compressed between two arteries – the main artery of the body called the abdominal aorta (AA) and one of its branches called the SMA.
