Iranians face soaring medicine prices as US blockade and sanctions hit hard

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Some medicines have more than tripled in price, seven months into the US and Israel’s war on Tehran, with food prices soaring, unemployment rising and the currency hitting record lows. 

Iran produces more than 80 per cent of its medicines domestically but relies on imported raw materials, most of which arrived by sea before the war. 

The US naval blockade has forced importers on to more expensive air routes, now threatened by new sanctions on Iranian airlines.

Bahman Sabour of the Tehran Pharmacies Association said US sanctions do not directly target medicines, but financial sanctions have long discouraged international banks and companies from processing pharmaceutical transactions for fear of falling foul of restrictions.

Azita Hassanpour, whose mother has cancer, said chemotherapy treatments were still available but increasingly delayed. 

She has also been unable to secure her mother’s annual flu vaccine. 

“I am worried that I may lose her because of flu. I weep out of her sight every night,” she said.

Iranian Pharmacists Association spokesman Hadi Ahmadi said around 700,000 flu vaccine doses had been imported from China, with a further half a million expected soon, though prices have almost doubled to 22 million rials (£9.77) despite promises of free jabs for high-risk patients.

The US Treasury announced new sanctions this week targeting individuals and companies in Iran, Hong Kong and Pakistan accused of facilitating Iran’s military supply chain, as part of its Operation Economic Outcast campaign.

Meanwhile, Iranian officials said today they had received a formal US response to Tehran’s latest proposal to end the war, days after President Donald Trump publicly rejected it. 

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi presented the response to President Masoud Pezeshkian, who said: “We will make every effort to bring the agreement to fruition and will firmly stand up for the rights of the Iranian people. 

“The agreement must now be based on a win-win strategy.”

Mr Araghchi had proposed reopening the Strait of Hormuz within a week if the US lifted its port blockade, released frozen Iranian assets and waived oil sanctions — an offer Mr Trump dismissed, saying Iran was “losing so badly.”

Mediators have continued working towards a deal despite the rejection.