Iran Ranks 8th in World in Cell Therapy

“We have made significant progress in the field of stem cells; last year we had only one cell therapy product in the market and ranked 12th in the world, but this year we have reached the 8th place with 5 products,” Qaneyee said.

“Our goal is to stand among the top five countries in the world in this field and eliminate the need for patients to travel abroad for treatment,” he added.

Qaneyee also underlined that the country is seriously pursuing two important projects of domestic production of insulin and plasma.

In relevant remarks in May, Iranian Vice-President for Science, Technology and Knowledge-Based Economy Hossein Afshin announced that the country aims to produce 1.5 million liters of plasma annually.

“The consumption and need for plasma in the country is about 1.4 million liters. Our goal, in addition to meeting domestic needs, is to become active in the field of plasma exports. Therefore, by the end of the Seventh Development Plan, our goal will be to supply 1.5 million liters of plasma,” Afshin said.

He added that the government has tried support the plasma industry activists, noting that there have been many difficulties in the path of creating a plasma refinery, from supplying feed to refining, storage and transportation.

In relevant remarks in April, Secretary of the Biotechnology, Health and Medical Technologies Headquarters of the Qaneyee had also earlier announced new plans to establish plasma collection centers and deploy plasmapheresis machines in the northern city of Rasht.

“The country's need to plasma-derived drugs will be significantly met by the end of the next year with these efforts,” Qaneyee said.

“One of the active companies in this field has a production capacity of 300,000 liters annually and another company produces 80,000 50-ml vials of albumin and 72,000 50-ml vials of intravenous immunoglobulin, meeting 25% of the country's needs,” he added.

“Also, another company has 10 beds and 10 plasmapheresis machines for plasma collection,” Qaneyee said.

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