Tehran, YJC. Head of Food and Drug Administration says Interferon β made domestically will be available cheaper.
Dr. Rasoul Dinarvand who was speaking at the closing ceremony
held for patients with MS in Milad Tower on Friday evening said "The patients
who used to spend something between Rls500 to 900 thousand will pay only Rls25
to 45 thousand starting Saturday.”
Pointing out that around 30 thousand people use the drug he
said "The drug is being produced in three formulas around the world, all three
of which are also made in Iran,” Mehr News Agency reports.
Dinarvand further said "The patients who use the Iranian
version will receive 95 percent support from the Health Ministry and insurance
companies.”
"Although there is no problem with the Iran-made drug and it
can serve the patients well, there are some physicians who prescribe the
imported versions. There are less than 8 thousand patients using the foreign
versions. Based on their accounting formulae, insurance companies cover the
imported drug up to the price of the domestic one,” he mentioned.
"So that patients using imported drugs are burdened less, the
Health Ministry allocated Rls1,000 billion as support. Although subsidies this
much is a lot, the patients still pay a lot out of their pockets, so much so
that they still have to spend about Rls6 million for MS drugs,” he said.