2024-01-14T16:04:39+00:00
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/ The Prime Minister’s Advisor for Industry Affairs, Hamoudi Al-Lami, revealed on Sunday that the Iraqi pharmaceutical industry has doubled during the year 2023 compared to the previous year, indicating that next year will witness an increase in local production of up to 50% of the actual need, while more than 40 private sector factories have been announced under construction and licensing.
Al-Lami told Agency, “Local production of medicines covered 10% of the actual need in 2022, while Iraq imported medicines and treatments worth about four billion dollars. Accordingly, Prime Minister Muhammad Shia al-Sudani directed the development of a plan to localize the pharmaceutical industry.”
He added, “What was achieved in 2023 exceeded what was planned, as the number of contracts for local medicines and their quantities supplied to the Ministry of Health increased to more than double, while we expected demand to rise from 10% to 20%, but it reached 30%, and the volume of contracts jumped from 144 billion dinars to more than 400 billion dinars at the end of 2023.”
Al-Lami said, “338 new medicines were registered in 2023, and these medicines will begin production in the second half of this year, as the production of a new medicine requires the availability of basic supplies, which requires months to secure, but the citizen will witness more availability of the medicines he needs, including treatments for chronic diseases such as blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, and others.”
He pointed out that “during the year 2025, we will witness the availability of local medicines by 50%,” adding, “We are not only focusing on the Samarra Pharmaceutical Company, but there is also the private sector, as we currently have 24 private sector factories and there are also 18 factories under construction, as well as 26 requests to establish new factories to produce medicines.”