TEHRAN – Smuggling medicine out of the country has increased due to depreciation of the Iranian rial against foreign currencies which has lowered medicine costs inside the country, Mohammad Reza Shanehsaz, head of Food and Drug Administration, has said.

In addition to the traffickers who seize the opportunity to make higher profits and export medicines available on the market in various ways, foreign and domestic travelers also carry suitcases containing medicines as lucrative items for selling abroad, he lamented.

Many of these people, of course, do not sell or smuggle these medicines out of the country and their relatives in neighboring countries may need them, such as diabetes patients who need insulin which is costly in neighboring countries, he noted.

While some of these people who take medicines out of the country for their family members do not think that it has dire consequences for the country and patients in need of the medicines, he said, IRNA reported on Tuesday.

“So, we have expanded cooperation with the police, customs, and border officials to counter this issue,” he noted, concluding, although medicine smuggling seizures have increased, unfortunately smuggling pharmaceuticals has increased generally.

FB/MG