Iranian Knowledge-Based Firm Launches Producing Insulin from Cells

“One of the big issues in the country is that given the country’s circumstances  and the problems that the superpowers have created for other countries, access to the medicines needed by people with diabetes is very risky. If insulin is not provided to diabetic patients for at least two days, unfortunate events will happen to the country,” Mostafa Qanei, the secretary of the Knowledge-Based Health Economy Development Headquarters which is a department of the Vice Presidency for Science and Technology and Knowledge-Based Economy told Iranian media.

Emphasizing the necessity of maintaining security in the supply of medicines for diabetic patients, Qanei pointed out, “Insulin has been a medicine that has been imported into the country, but what happened recently is that one of the technological companies in the country succeeded in producing insulin from the cellular stage, i.e. the first stage of technology to produce new combination of insulin.”

Qanei said that the production of that important product in the field of health was achieved with the support and cooperation of the Vice Presidency, the Innovation and Prosperity Fund, the National Development Fund and the participating banks, adding, "This synergy (cooperation) made it possible to produce insulin from the cells at one of the most advanced and well-equipped pharmaceutical companies  in the country with technological cooperation from other countries and domestic researchers."

The secretary of the Knowledge-Based Health Economy Development called the locally production of insulin as one of the main objectives of his department, adding, “Researchers at a knowledge-based company were able to acquire insulin production technical know-how in the country after 10 years [of efforts].”

 “The domestic company has started the first phase of the producing cell stage in the form of industrial work and we hope that the clinical phase research results of this insulin's efficiency are equivalent to advanced insulins in the world,” he added. 

He expressed hope that the Iranian company's products can meet the entire needs of the Middle East region.

Rouhollah Dehghani Firouzabadi, Vice-President for Science, Technology and Knowledge-Based Economy further at the unveiling ceremony of the first insulin raw material production line in the country that with the help of a multinational knowledge-based company, the production of insulin from a cell base was materialized for the first time in the country.

“This production line has an annual production capacity of 700 kg of insulin and saves the country more than 100 million euros,” Dehghani Firouzabadi added.

Insulin is a peptide hormone produced by beta cells of the pancreatic islets encoded in humans by the INS gene. It is considered to be the main anabolic hormone of the body  as it regulates the metabolism of carbohydrates, fats and protein by promoting the absorption of glucose from the blood into liver, fat and skeletal muscle cells.

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