The pharmaceutical market is experiencing turbulence out of fear of returning US sanctions. Shahrvand newspaper writes about the 30% increase in the price of certain pharmaceuticals, that is if you are able to find the medicine in the first place. Although pharmaceuticals are not under sanctions, the lack of a monetary transfer system has led to troubles in their imports. The issue is that even before the return of the sanctions, imported pharmaceuticals have become rare. Some pharmacies claim that a fear of becoming unable to find medicine or fear of price hikes as a result of the instability of the exchange rate have led to some customers stockpiling medicine which has led to increased demand.
Shahrvand quotes a pharmacy in Tehran which stated that pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors claim a lack of basic material as the excuse. However, these companies often have a six month stockpile and the import of drugs was not affected until very recently. Thus it seems that profiteering is again to blame.
The Minister of Health stated that the pharmaceutical industry in Iran has a turnover of 120 to 160 billion IRR and only 30% of this market is provided via imports. In spite of this, even domestic pharmaceuticals have seen a significant price hike.