Dr Hamid Reza Rasekh is Deputy General Manager of Tolid Darou and Associate Professor of Pharmacology
and Toxicology at the School of Pharmacy, Shaheed Beheshti University of Medical Sciences.

He earned all his degrees (from high school diploma to post-doctoral training) in the US where he lived, studied and worked for 16 years. He worked in Park Davis Pharmaceutical Company and 3M’s Drug Delivery and Drug Discovery Divisions in the US and is a member of the Pharmaceutical Honor Society (USA), Society for Neurosciences (USA) and International Federation of Pharmaceutical Sciences (Holland).

EVENTS interviewed him to find out about the Iranian pharmaceutical industry, its potentials and weaknesses,
and the opportunities it offers to foreign investors.

Events: How do you evaluate the present status of the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industry of Iran?

Dr Hamid Reza Rasekh: Let me give you a picture of the present conditions through the latest statistical figures available, the 2002-3 statistics. In the year ending 20th March 2003 consumers bought about 20b
units of pharmaceutical products worth 568b toomans, 66m US dollars. What is important is that 96.5% of all this medicine was produced domestically. So, as you can see we import only a very small portion of our needs. This small quantity (3.5%), however, comprises about 26% of the total monetary value of medicines consumed
that year. This means that the medical products that we import are very expensive or that the locally produced products are, in comparison, very cheap.

Now, if we assume the Iranian population to be the official figure of 65.5m, which cannot be very far from the exact figure, then that year each Iranian consumed 312 units of medicine, i.e. our per capita consumption of medicine that year was 312 units worth 90,000 rials or about 11 US dollars. What is peculiar in our country
is that we Iranians have greater tendency towards injectable forms of medications. It seems that Iranians have more confidence in injections, perhaps there is this belief that injections are more effective because of their faster onset of action or because they are often painful (no pain no gain!). In any case, our manufacturers have to invest heavily to meet demand for injections, as they require sterile systems of manufacturing which impose heavy costs on the National Health Care System.

E: What particular kinds of medicine are mostly in demand in Iran?

HR: In terms of number of drugs used, Iranians consume most of all medicines that concern the central nervous system or CNS, followed by anti-infection agents, and digestive system and cardiovascular medicines, in that order. In money terms the highest amount goes to the antiinfective agents followed by CNS products which means that these two are consumed more than any other kind. Unfortunately these two types of medicines are often consumed by Iranians unnecessarily and without medical consultation. For instance, many Iranians take antibiotics as soon as they feel they have a cold, whereas in most cases such uses are unnecessary and can further cause microbial resistance.

E: Let’s turn to the economic and trade aspects of the industry. Do we export any medicines?

HR: Indeed we do, but not in any considerable quantity and only to a few countries. As our quality standards are rising, however, we are witnessing a very remarkable rate of growth in exports.

E: What is Tolid Darou’s contribution to the industry?

HR: During the past two years, Tolid Darou or TD, has invested heavily in its IT center hoping to gather sufficient data to meet all the needs of its management, and also be able to provide information to the consumers. In this Center we have one doctor as the head of the IT center and three experts in information
technology and its applications. Our other achievement is a considerable expansion in the range and variety of our products, i.e. the number of new products that we have added to our range, especially in the nonmedical
field, most notably the many new insecticide sprays, and new lines of air fresheners and shaving foams. We have recently launched 12 different herbal shampoos with extracts derived from medicinal plants of local origin.
Perhaps our greatest achievement is the expansion of exports, the very subject that is of interest to EVENTS. We now sell a good part of our production in the CIS states. We have also concluded agreements with French and British firms to jointly produce contact lens solutions and 60 new skin care and cosmetic products and to market them with the cooperation of the same companies, across the globe. But our greatest effort goes into
raising quality standards to the highest level the world knows. We intend to produce, soon, products of the highest quality and to offer them to the world at most competitive prices. Towards this end, Tolid Darou
seeks the cooperation and assistance of multinational and quality manufacturers worldwide.