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A severe public health emergency is unfolding across Iran as acute medicine shortages and skyrocketing pharmaceutical prices leave millions of citizens struggling to obtain critical treatments. The mounting crisis is being driven by a combination of tightened United States economic sanctions, an active naval blockade, and widespread destruction of domestic production facilities resulting from the ongoing conflict with the US and Israel.
The human impact of the pharmaceutical crunch is evident across the country's pharmacies, where patients are finding both imported and locally produced drugs increasingly out of reach. In Tehran, 59-year-old resident Farah explained that she previously relied on a Swiss-manufactured medication to manage her autoimmune disorder. She was eventually forced to transition to a domestically produced alternative due to surging costs and supply disruptions, but she now worries that even Iranian-made substitutes are rapidly disappearing from pharmacy shelves.
According to data disclosed by the Iranian Pharmacists Association, approximately 800 pharmaceutical products are currently experiencing nationwide supply deficits. Hadi Ahmadi, a spokesperson for the association, revealed to domestic media that around 90 of these scarce items are classified as critical, life-saving therapies. Significantly, about 400 of the medications facing severe shortages are formulations that are typically manufactured within Iran's borders.
Alongside widespread supply shortfalls, the cost of essential pharmaceuticals has undergone an unprecedented surge over the past twelve months. State media reports indicate that Gabapentin, a drug widely prescribed for epilepsy and nerve-related pain, has experienced a price increase of 220 percent. Common over-the-counter pain and fever reducers such as Acetaminophen have jumped by 375 percent, the antibiotic Amoxicillin has risen by 285 percent, and the antidepressant Fluoxetine has climbed by 100 percent.
For chronic disease sufferers, the financial burden is particularly acute. Insulin, an indispensable daily requirement for diabetics, now commands prices up to six times higher than it did just a year ago. These staggering increases reflect Iran's broader economic turmoil, characterized by one of the world's highest inflation rates, where the cost of staple foods has jumped more than 123 percent year-on-year and household necessities like cooking oil have more than tripled in price.
For years, Iranian policymakers have prioritized industrial self-reliance, heavily investing in the domestic synthesis of active pharmaceutical ingredients, specialized machinery, and finished medications. Despite these self-sufficiency initiatives, the country’s healthcare infrastructure continues to depend fundamentally on foreign imports for specialized raw materials, advanced laboratory equipment, and rare disease formulations.
Although humanitarian goods are theoretically shielded by exemptions under international frameworks, Washington’s long-running "maximum pressure" campaign has effectively paralyzed the international banking channels and freight logistics needed to complete medical transactions. This financial isolation has dramatically inflated procurement expenses and extended delivery timelines for essential medical cargo.
The pharmaceutical sector’s vulnerabilities have been drastically exacerbated by physical conflict since February, when the US and Israeli war on Iran began. Iranian officials state that military strikes have damaged or completely leveled approximately 44 pharmaceutical and medical manufacturing facilities across the country, resulting in roughly 50 industry personnel being killed or wounded.
Among the hardest-hit facilities is Tofigh Daru, a major pharmaceutical firm operated under Iran’s largest pension fund. Israeli air bombardments completely devastated the company’s primary research facilities and manufacturing lines, which were dedicated to producing peptide compounds, narcotic active ingredients, and specialized anti-cancer treatments.
Maryam Farahani, the company’s director of sales, confirmed that the destroyed infrastructure was primarily geared toward treating cancer patients and individuals suffering from complex chronic illnesses. To prevent a complete halt in supplies, Tofigh Daru has leased alternative production facilities, though ongoing operations remain severely impeded by the US naval blockade in the Strait of Hormuz and related disruptions across air, rail, and land transport corridors.
The destruction at Tofigh Daru has also set back decades of scientific development. Farahani noted that the strikes obliterated server rooms, vital databases, and specialized equipment accumulated over 26 years of operations. Restoring the damaged facilities even partially is projected to require at least two years and tens of millions of dollars, forcing researchers to laboriously attempt to reconstruct lost proprietary data.
The Israeli military claimed in late March that its targeting of Tofigh Daru was justified, alleging the company acted as a key supplier of fentanyl to the Ministry of Defence’s SPND research body for use in chemical weapons programs. Tofigh Daru strongly rejected the accusation, maintaining that it only manufactured pharmaceutical-grade fentanyl citrate in strictly regulated, small quantities intended solely for clinical surgical anesthesia.
Farahani also highlighted that the facility had been producing generic glatiramer acetate, an injectable therapy for relapsing multiple sclerosis originally developed under the brand Copaxone by the Israeli pharmaceutical firm Teva. She lamented the deliberate bombardment of scientific and research institutions that underpin the country's developmental and medical capacities.
Despite the severe structural damage and escalating supply bottlenecks, Iranian government officials continue to maintain that the national pharmaceutical system will withstand the pressure and avoid total collapse, even as everyday patients face an increasingly precarious search for basic medical care.
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