By Kayhan Life Staff
A member of the Iranian Parliament, or Majles, has raised questions about $1 billion which were withdrawn from the country’s sovereign wealth fund and intended for medical and medicinal use.
In a June 23 interview with the Tehran-based website Didban Iran, Ruhollah Lak Aliabadi — a member of the Majles’s Health and Medical Committee — said that before the onset of Iran’s war with the United States and Israel, $1 billion was withdrawn from the National Development Fund of Iran (NDFI), the sovereign wealth fund established in 2011 to support Iran’s Oil Stabilization Fund.
The funds were reportedly allocated on the orders of the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (who was killed by U.S. and Israeli forces on Feb. 28) for the purchase and import of medicines and medical equipment.
“We had a meeting in the Health and Medical Committee of Parliament with the Iranian Food and Drug Administration (IFDA). In fact, this meeting was quite challenging for the committee members. Before the war, on the order of the martyred Imam, it had been decided that $1 billion would be withdrawn from the Development Fund for medicine and medical equipment,” Aliabadi said.
“The issue that has been raised and is open to discussion is that of that $1 billion, $300 million has been spent, and it is not clear where the remaining $700 million have gone, or what was their fate.”
“The war was foreseeable, and we should have planned for the supply of equipment,” he said. “Through Heyat Omana Arzi (the council for saving in patient treatment), we tried to keep warehouses stocked with equipment and consumable items for at least six months.”
“Unfortunately, the problem concerns the withdrawal of $1 billion from the National Development Fund. The most important question is: where is this $1 billion, and how much of it has actually been spent?”
Noting that “drug shortages cannot be fixed by rhetoric,” he pointed out: “This problem demands concrete action. If there has been negligence in carrying out responsibilities, the Health and Medical Commission is determined to pursue it. We have not backed down and will not back down.”
“We are seriously investigating where these funds were spent, how they were spent, and why we are facing shortages of certain medicines today. The IFDA provided explanations, but the parliamentary commission was not convinced and decided to review the matter again at its next meeting,” he added.
He added: “At this meeting, the Health and Medical Commission effectively issued a serious yellow card (formal warning) to the IFDA. The matter is being pursued very seriously, and commission members will not let it go.”
Referring to the severe drug shortage crisis and concerns about the performance of Iran’s Minister of Health and Medical Education, Mohammad-Reza Zafarghandi, he said that due to wartime conditions, there is currently no plan to initiate impeachment proceedings against ministers.
“Given the current wartime circumstances, I do not think impeachment of ministers — whether the Health Minister or others — is on the agenda for now. Perhaps if conditions become calmer and parliamentary sessions resume, the issue may be raised. Members of Parliament will certainly defend the rights of the people within the framework of their oversight duties,” Aliabadi explained.
The lawmaker emphasized that drug shortages in Iran have become a serious crisis, particularly for patients with rare and chronic illnesses.
Ahmad Ghavidel, a member of the General Assembly of the Iranian Hemophilia Society (IHS), recently said: “For nearly five months now, hemophilia patients have lacked access to some of the medicines they need.”
“Some patients with rare coagulation disorders use medications such as Factor XIII, Fibrinogen, and similar products, which are now unavailable to them. During this period, all our efforts to secure international assistance and obtain these medicines have been unsuccessful.”
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Zahra Gholjaei, director of the Thalassemia Association of Sistan and Baluchestan Province (southeast Iran), warned of shortages of iron-chelating drugs, including Deferasirox and Desferal 500, saying that disruptions in their supply could damage patients’ vital organs.
She also reported that a large share of medicines is concentrated in Zahedan, the capital of Sistan and Baluchestan Province, making access difficult for patients in smaller towns.
In addition, some thalassemia patients lack identity documents and therefore face difficulties obtaining healthcare, support services, and insurance coverage.
Mahmoud Hadipour Dehshal, an adviser to the Foundation for Special Diseases, had also said earlier this year: “Hemophilia patients are currently facing serious difficulties obtaining their medicines, and some drugs, such as Factor XIII, cannot be found on the market.”
“After this crisis passes, attention must be paid to weaknesses in domestic production of plasma-derived medicines and to the role of conflicts of interest in decision-making within the plasma industry.”
“According to managers, there are around 600 to 700 medicine shortages, and according to the public, the number is much higher,” Dehshal explained.
“If a patient has been using a foreign-made drug, it is not easy to simply recommend switching to a domestic alternative. For some time now, Desferal and Jadenu (deferasirox) have not been available to thalassemia patients.”
“In many cases, this has negatively affected treatment and poses risks to patient health. These problems are especially serious for patients with rare diseases. Medicines related to the plasma industry are now in a critical state, despite years of promotion of domestically produced plasma-derived medications,” Dehshal added.
A report from the Statistical Center of Iran (SCI) on inflation in May also highlighted rising medicine prices.
According to the report, overall monthly inflation in May was 8.9 percent, but among the twelve main expenditure groups, the highest monthly inflation rate was 23.1 percent, recorded in the “Health and Medical Services” category.
This means that households had to spend 23 percent more in May than in April for the same healthcare services or medical and health-related products.
Sources in the pharmaceutical industry say one of the main causes of rising drug prices and shortages has been the failure to provide sufficient, timely foreign currency for the import of medicines, medical equipment, and raw materials needed by domestic pharmaceutical companies.
Under these circumstances, questions about the fate of the $700 million withdrawn from the NDFI and the manner in which the other $300 million was spent have become increasingly important.
