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Across Iran, patients are confronting an intensifying healthcare emergency as vital pharmaceuticals disappear from pharmacy shelves and prices climb beyond the reach of ordinary households. The escalating crisis stems from a compounding mix of tightened United States economic sanctions, a stringent naval blockade, and the extensive physical destruction of domestic manufacturing infrastructure following months of military strikes.
For ordinary citizens managing chronic illnesses, these supply disruptions have introduced severe daily dread. In the capital city of Tehran, a 59-year-old resident named Farah explained that she previously relied on a Swiss-manufactured prescription to manage her autoimmune condition. Skyrocketing costs and vanishing supplies compelled her to switch to a domestically produced generic alternative, but she now fears even local treatments may soon become unobtainable, noting that inconsistent availability forces dangerous therapeutic disruptions since different drug formulations vary in quality and overall effectiveness.
Farah’s dilemma reflects a widespread national emergency that has begun impacting critical care across the country. Data shared by the Iranian Pharmacists Association indicates that approximately 800 pharmaceutical products are currently experiencing severe nationwide shortages. According to the association’s spokesperson, Hadi Ahmadi, roughly 90 of these scarce medications are categorized as indispensable, life-saving treatments, and approximately 400 of the deficient drugs are products that Iran normally manufactures domestically.
Alongside these critical supply deficits, the cost of available medicine has surged dramatically. Recent figures published by the state-run Mehr News Agency reveal that the price of gabapentin, a medication frequently prescribed for nerve pain and epilepsy, climbed by 220 percent over the course of a single year. Basic pain and fever relievers such as acetaminophen experienced a 375 percent price jump, while common antibiotics like amoxicillin increased by 285 percent.
Other essential treatments have experienced comparable surges, with the anti-depressant fluoxetine doubling in price following a 100 percent increase over the past year. Diabetics face an even heavier financial burden, as the cost of daily insulin supplies has multiplied up to sixfold. These healthcare expenses have unfolded against a severe broader economic downturn marked by rampant inflation, where the price of essential food items increased by over 123 percent year-on-year as of August and basic staples such as cooking oil more than tripled in cost.
The deepening crisis highlights the vulnerabilities of Iran’s long-standing push toward pharmaceutical self-reliance. Over the years, the country invested heavily in domestic manufacturing capacity to synthesize active pharmaceutical ingredients, assemble specialized processing machinery, and produce finished medications. Nevertheless, the industry remains deeply dependent on overseas imports for specialized raw materials, rare medications, and high-tech manufacturing equipment.
While international sanctions frameworks officially maintain humanitarian exemptions for medical supplies, Washington’s sweeping "maximum pressure" measures have crippled the international banking channels and logistical networks required to facilitate transactions. As foreign financial institutions and shipping operators avoid Iranian business to evade secondary penalties, the procurement process for essential medical raw ingredients has grown prohibitively expensive and logistically strained.
The situation deteriorated further after direct military hostilities involving the US and Israel erupted in February, inflicting severe physical damage on the country's medical industrial base. Iranian authorities reported that airstrikes damaged or destroyed approximately 44 domestic pharmaceutical and medical equipment facilities, leaving around 50 industry personnel dead or wounded.
Among the hardest-hit facilities was Tofigh Daru, a prominent pharmaceutical enterprise owned by Iran’s largest pension fund. The company served as a key supplier of specialized medications, catering heavily to cancer patients and individuals battling long-term, debilitating illnesses through unique formulations and active ingredients.
Maryam Farahani, the director of sales at Tofigh Daru, revealed that Israeli airstrikes struck and dismantled all of the facility’s primary research and production lines. The destroyed infrastructure included specialized units dedicated to synthesizing peptide active ingredients, narcotic compounds, and vital anti-cancer therapies, many of which were exclusively produced by the firm.
In the wake of the strikes, the company leased an alternate production facility to maintain a minimal level of manufacturing output. However, operations remain severely hampered by the US naval blockade in the Strait of Hormuz and sweeping sanctions that have disrupted maritime shipping, air freight, rail, and overland transit routes, drastically raising the costs of importing necessary replacement components.
The airstrikes also leveled server rooms, digital databases, and specialized equipment accumulated over 26 years of operation. Farahani estimated that partially restoring the company’s manufacturing capacity will take at least two years and require tens of millions of dollars in capital, forcing scientific staff to scramble to preserve institutional knowledge that was lost during the destruction.
The Israeli military offered a justification for targeting Tofigh Daru in late March, claiming the enterprise acted as a principal supplier of fentanyl to SPND, a prominent research body affiliated with Iran’s Ministry of Defence, alleging the compound was being funneled into chemical weapons research.
Tofigh Daru strongly rejected those allegations, stating that its fentanyl production was strictly limited to the citrate-salt formulation synthesized in minor quantities for approved medical procedures such as surgical anesthesia. Farahani highlighted that the firm also produced glatiramer acetate, an injectable generic treatment for relapsing multiple sclerosis originally marketed as Copaxone by the Israeli firm Teva, lamenting that critical medical research facilities supporting national healthcare development were targeted.
Despite the visible deterioration of supply chains and the growing hardship felt by patients nationwide, Iranian government officials continue to downplay the severity of the crisis, publicly maintaining that the national pharmaceutical sector will withstand the pressure and avoid systemic collapse.
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