By Staff Writer
In the past weeks, several state news outlets have reported on Iran’s poor medical services which according to the activists of Iran’s Nursing Council, is due to the rent-seeking and lobbying of drug importers.
According to ILNA (24 June 2018), a member of the National Nursing Council named Hossein Alinesaei has confronted this issue in his statement: “In a recent discussion which covered a wide scope of issues, our Minister of Health asked us to tell people that due to the upcoming sanctions of the United States on our country, we have tough times ahead of us…but these words are useless as they only spark fear”
He added: “Dear Minister, why are you misleading everyone?! Why don’t you speak the truth, which is that only very few exclusive importers, who happen to be rent-seeking too, are in charge of our country’s medical market?”
He continues: “Dear Minister, why didn’t you tell us in advance that to apply for a production license, we must go through so much hardship, only to be rejected in the end and? why don’t you tell people how the very same rent-seeking importers, whose best interest you have at heart, own most of the medical market? Why don’t you stop with your empty talks and show us some meaningful action?”
Alinesaei emphasised that the authorities “don’t realise that by supporting the production of medical goods and facilities, not only the unemployment rates will go down, but the low-income earners will finally be able to afford their treatments too.”
The sad truth is that many drug producers are now on the verge of bankruptcy, which Alinesaei has also addressed: “Dear Minister, even if drug producers manage to pass through the difficult and frustrating hurdles that you’ve put on their way, they’d still be led to bankruptcy sooner or later; because the rent-seeking importers who have dominated the market with their strong influence, will not allow competition; so they’ll force the producers to either produce lower quality products than the ones imported by them, or to take their business elsewhere altogether”.
As can be seen, the regime clearly doesn’t support its domestic production of drugs, which can not only reduce the country’s inflation, but also increase the employment rates and thereby people’s wealth. Considering the regime’s special treatment of its importers, the reason behind the excessive imports of low-quality drugs is much clearer now.
When a product is imported at a very cheap price but sold for a ten-fold amount, not to mention in a market free of any other competitors, importers end up making easy money, which given its enormity, only leads to uncontrollable inflations and harmful consequences in the lives of countless Iranians.
