Four Thousand Medicines and Natural-based and Traditional Products Received Production Licenses

Mohammad Hassan Assareh, the Secretary of National Council for Science and Technology Development of Medicinal Plants and Traditional Medicine, Vice-presidency for Science and Technology noted that production licenses for natural-based medicines and products have been issued by Food and Drug Administration, which consists of 20 percent of the total production licenses of medicines and products, “so far, 4,004 medicines and natural-based and traditional products have received production licenses from Food and Drug Administration.”

Assareh added, “At the moment, about 500 companies received licenses from Food and Drug Administration. They are considered tobe producers of natural-based and traditional products, and according to the statistics, 150 of those companies export to regional countries as well as elsewhere.”

According to him, lack of suitable marketing for the sales of medicinal plants as well as banking and economic sanctions are among the most important hindrances of traders of this field, “medicinal plants are accounted genetic resources and our national heritage. The selling of raw products and the export of the unprocessed products, both lead to the destruction of this treasure for the next generation. Also, the main profit of medicinal plants market in the field of food and drug is in the processing of the end product; and negligence means this market and its profit would be transferred to other countries and their companies, moreover, the educated work force and experts would need to change their working fields in the country.”

This official further noted, “There are several measures that can be taken to pevent the selling of raw medicinal plants. All the strategies included in the National Documents on Medicinal Plants and Traditional Medicine can be used as plans aiming at growth and development of the market for herbal medicine and natural-based products, as well as the increase in the export of value-added products. This has been communicated to all the administrative bodies.”

Assareh went on to say, “The development of the companies producing medicinal plants and natural-based products in the recent 10 years is due to the above mentioned measures, so that currently, Food and Drug Administration has issued  20 percent of the licences for the production of natural -based medicines and products out of the total licenses given to general medicines and products. So far, 4,004 medicines, traditional and natural-based products have received production licenses from the Food and Drug Administration. However, in 2008, only 390 of these products received a licence from the Administration. One other important measures in this regard is to impose rules and regulations to prevent export of the most valuable medicinal plants species and to develop medicinal plants cultivation instead of harvesting these plants from the rangelands by the Ministry of Agriculture Jihad. At the moment, we have 100 percent increase in the capacity in comparison to the past.”