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the black market to grow and become several times bigger than the official
medicine market. In addition, major Iranian pharmaceutical companies such
as Akbariyeh, Darou Pakhsh, Alborz and so forth practically got out of the
Iranian medicine market only to be replaced with smaller, inexperienced
companies, which could only procure medicines through brokers or from
unknown pharmaceutical companies. On the other hand, governmental
institutions were forced to spend a hefty amount of the country’s money on
paying subsidies on medicines in order to protect patients that used them. They
did this by supplying medicine importers with inexpensive foreign exchange
and also through hefty payments to domestic insurance companies. Despite
all these efforts, patients still had to bear the brunt of the cost of purchasing
medicines and transferring them into the country while also taking a lot of
trouble to find their needed medicines on the market.
Children suffering from shortage of infant formula due to sanctions
I have a very respectable friend with strong social relations. During the
sanctions period, he became father to a son. A few months later, when I
saw him, he was very concerned and anxious. He said that his son could
not use ordinary formula, because it gave him bowel problems and
needed to eat a special formula, which was specific to children with this
problem. He said that he had searched the entire capital city from north to
south and from east to west. He had also asked for help from his own wife
and brother, who were physicians, to help him find the special formula
for children that suffered from this alimentary tract disease. However,
everybody told him that formula could not be found in the Iranian market
since sanctions had intensified. His innocent child was constantly crying at
home, while he was wondering up and down streets with a heavy heart
from this pharmacy to that one only to hear negative answers.