maikerop.blogg.se

Despite these efforts, Iran continues to face ongoing challenges to importing life-saving medicines, supplies, and medical raw materials from the United States and EU. This is despite the fact that revisions have been made to export controls by the United States (U.S.) Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in an attempt to better facilitate humanitarian trade. However, overlooked in this landmark development in foreign policy and diplomacy is an unresolved public health crisis directly related to economic sanctions: an ongoing critical domestic medicines shortage in Iran.Īlthough the primary intentions of the historically imposed Iranian sanction regime were to limit economic development, international trade, and scientific and military assistance, sanctions have also directly contributed to creating critical medicine shortages within the country that persist to this day.

Compliance to the terms of the JCOPA represents a possible end to Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions and also marks the beginning of a period of transition that will reintegrate Iran back into the global economy. Importantly, “Implementation Day” marks a critical first step towards the lifting of a host of multilateral nuclear-related sanctions imposed by the United States, the European Union (EU), the United Nations Security Council, and other countries, that had been increasing in scope and have crippled the Iranian economy for more than three decades. On January 16, 2016, this agreement reached a critical milestone, with the International Atomic Agency (IAEA) certifying that Iran had successfully complied with a set of JCPOA nuclear dismantlement requirements, triggering commencement of “Implementation Day.”

On October 18, 2015, the United States approved a set of conditional sanction waivers for the Islamic Republic of Iran following agreement on the historic Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) reached by the P5 + 1 (comprised of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany) in July 2015. This specifically includes advocating for the application of “health diplomacy” in ongoing multilateral negotiations following commencement of “implementation day,” by advocating for an additional set of reform measures incorporated into this historic negotiation that will finally address the humanitarian and medical crisis of drug shortages in Iran. Summaryīased on our review of the sanctions regulatory framework and key characteristics of the Iranian drug shortage, we propose policy intervention leveraging the recently negotiated P5 + 1 agreement that begins the process of providing Iran relief from the international economic sanctions regime. A vast majority of these drugs were also covered under export control exemptions that theoretically should make them easier to procure, but nevertheless will still in shortage. Additionally, 44 % of these drugs were also classified as essential medicines by the World Health Organization. We conducted a review of key characteristics of the Iranian drug shortage that identified 73 shortage drugs that closely tracked with the disease burden in the country. However, despite these efforts, pharmaceutical firms and international banking institutions remain cautious about doing business with Iran, leaving the country faced with continuing shortages. DiscussionĬountries such as the United States have responded to this medical crisis by implementing export control exemptions with the aim of easing the trade of humanitarian goods (including certain pharmaceuticals and medical devices). Sanctions have also crippled Iran’s domestic pharmaceutical industry, leading to the disruption of generic medicines production and forcing the country to import medicines and raw materials that are of lower or questionable quality. This includes creating vital domestic shortages to life-saving medicines, leaving an estimated 6 million Iranian patients with limited treatment access for a host of diseases. Though primarily targeted at Iran’s nuclear proliferation activities, sanctions have nevertheless resulted in negative public health outcomes for ordinary Iranian citizens. Embassy hostage crisis in Tehran, and since then the scope of multilateral sanctions imposed by the United States, the European Union, and the United Nations Security Council have progressively expanded throughout the intervening years. The U.S Congress initiated sanctions against Iran after the 1979 U.S.