Medicines run short in Iran under US sanctions

{"text":[[{"start":8.28,"text":"Iranian pharmacists have warned of a worsening shortage of medicines as the US war and blockade complicate the country’s ability to import and pay for medical drugs."}],[{"start":18.56,"text":"While the country of 90mn produces most of its own medication domestically, it relies on imports of ingredients from countries including India and buys medicines and vaccines from Europe and elsewhere."}],[{"start":29.44,"text":"But ministers have acknowledged in recent weeks that securing those supplies has become increasingly difficult."}],[{"start":35.879,"text":"The US has for months blockaded Iran’s southern ports, the main corridor for the country’s medicine imports, while a growing number of international flights — on which they are also brought in — have been cancelled because of American sanctions on airline service providers in third countries."}],[{"start":50.38,"text":"Several pharmaceutical factories were also hit directly or indirectly at the height of the US-Israeli bombing campaign, officials said. All this has forced Tehran to tap strategic reserves of medicine and look for alternative overland routes for imports, officials said."}],[{"start":65.16,"text":"Hadi Ahmadi, a spokesperson for the Iranian Pharmacists Association, said about 60 medicines used for life-threatening diseases, such as for the blood disorder thalassaemia, were in short supply."}],[{"start":76.8,"text":"Ahmadi said that “no raw materials, medicines or necessary equipment have entered the country by sea” during the US naval blockade."}],[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":85.08,"text":"Iran’s health minister Mohammad Reza Zafarghandi acknowledged this week that the economic blockade was disrupting the supply chain."}],[{"start":92.68,"text":"“Even though they officially announce that medicines are not subject to sanctions, restrictions on foreign currency transfer and shipments impede supply,” he said."}],[{"start":101.37,"text":"The US says medicine is exempt from sanctions. But while the shortages have been getting worse for months under the blockade, analysts say pharmaceuticals are also vulnerable to Washington’s efforts to cut off air travel to Iran as part of its campaign to force the regime to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and make a deal over its nuclear programme."}],[{"start":118.46,"text":"A White House official did not specifically address the medicine shortage in Iran but said that the US naval blockade was a big logistical hurdle to Iran’s ability to find alternative transport routes in and out of the country. They added that the country also faced high inflation and plummeting purchasing power."}],[{"start":135.04,"text":"International banks are also increasingly wary of dealing with Iranian institutions even if the transactions are exempt from sanctions, according to the UK-based Bourse & Bazaar Foundation think-tank."}],[{"start":145.28,"text":"“The new measures, therefore, represent the latest instance in which the tightening of sanctions risks significant harm for ordinary Iranians,” Bourse & Bazaar wrote, “in this case because of the impact on the availability and affordability of critically important medical goods.”"}],[{"start":157.12,"text":"India has been a major supplier of Iran’s pharmaceutical products via the Strait of Hormuz. But the lack of shipments and direct flights between the two countries has worsened the problem."}],[{"start":169.52,"text":"Iran’s deputy minister of cultural heritage, Anoushiravan Mohseni-Bandpei, said that President Masoud Pezeshkian used his visit to India for the Brics summit this month to transport several tonnes of pharmaceutical ingredients back to Iran on his private plane."}],[{"start":183.6,"text":"“In the past, shortages were mainly limited to biological medicines or medications for difficult-to-treat diseases,” said a pharmacist in Tehran who did not wish to be named. “Now, even basic painkillers and very common psychiatric medications are unavailable.”"}],[{"start":199.84,"text":"One leading European drugmaker said it had not restricted any supplies of its medicines to Iran as a result of sanctions but had not received any orders for some of its drugs from Iranian authorities since last June."}],[{"start":211.44,"text":"One retired nurse, who was waiting for her turn at a pharmacy in Tehran, said she had to visit several outlets across the city on different days in order to find her husband’s chemotherapy medication."}],[{"start":221.68,"text":"“One time the drug was unavailable at government pharmacies, and we were forced to buy it on the open market at three times the regular price,” she said."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":229.6,"text":"Many patients face devastatingly high costs. Year-on-year inflation is currently at 90 per cent, and the government stopped providing cheap foreign currency to subsidise most medicines in March."}],[{"start":240.52,"text":"“The cost of raw materials suddenly increased fivefold,” Ahmadi said. “That, coupled with increases in transportation and logistics costs, has resulted in medicine prices rising by between 150 and 500 per cent.”"}],[{"start":253.72,"text":"Novartis, one of the world’s largest drugmakers, told the FT it has “substantial experience in continuing medicine supply chains during times of unrest or conflict, which has enabled us to maintain our supply to patients in Iran”."}],[{"start":267.04,"text":"Officials have also been racing to import enough influenza vaccines ahead of the winter. Mehdi Pirsalehi, head of Iran’s Food and Drug Administration, said that 700,000 doses of flu vaccine have been imported from China this week with more on the way from Russia and Europe."}],[{"start":283.16,"text":"But Younes Arab, the head of the Iranian Thalassaemia Society, said the situation was already “beyond the point of crisis” for thalassaemia patients, with critical imported medicines — which include Swiss drugmaker Novartis’s Jadenu medication — no longer available."}],[{"start":298.72,"text":"“All the red lines have been crossed,” Arab said."}],[{"start":301.64,"text":"Additional reporting by James Politi and Chris Kay"}],[{"start":306.36,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1790570562_7179.mp3"}