Iran ends US monopoly on brain stroke drug Alteplase

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
28 Sep 2023 15:42

An Iranian company successfully produces Alteplase, the only brain stroke medicine that has been FDA approved, and ends the US' monopoly on the drug.

In this Nov. 5, 2018 file photo, a drugstore employee reaches for medicine from shelf in downtown Tehran, Iran. (AP)

The only known drug for acute ischemic stroke (AIS), Alteplase, which was exclusively supplied by a US company, has been succeeded by an Iranian company in indigenizing the production of the drug.

It is important to note that the sole medicine authorized by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of AIS has been Alteplase.

In Iran, the Alteplase production line was officially inaugurated on September 23 during a ceremony that was attended by Ruhollah Dehqani-Firouzabadi, Vice President for science and technology.

The VP emphasized that “During the past years, we have mainly witnessed the growth and development of knowledge-based companies toward technological production and development, but the new generation of knowledge-based companies is also playing a key role in different sectors of the domestic economy, including food, health, and energy.”

Significantly, this product is now accessible to both domestic and international markets at a competitive price thanks to the technology employed by the Iranian company that ended the US' monopoly on the drug.

Life expectancy in Iran rises to 80

Iran's Health Ministry, earlier in August, stated that life expectancy in the country has increased from 60 to 80 over the past years.

According to Deputy Health Minister Younes Panahi, life expectancy in Iran has increased by around 15 to 25 years over the past years, reaching 80 this year.

An increase in life expectancy indicates that Iran is experiencing an acceleration in population aging, he said, noting that the current birth rate for 2023 is on average two births per woman.

For years, the US has been imposing its unfair and inhumane sanctions on Iran in a bid to subdue the country to the US' iron fist hegemony.

Sanctions work by choking the public sector's access to foreign exchanges, where dollars are available. With a shortage of dollars and an isolated economy, governments are forced to cut spending on critical public institutions.

While the current life expectancy in the US stands at 76.4 years, the shortest it's been in nearly two decades, the rise in Iran's life expectancy is not only proof that the quality of life has improved drastically under the rule of the current Iranian leadership, but also that US sanctions have failed to work on the country.