The Main Cause of Skyrocketing Medicine Prices
According to state media, official inflation in August of this year compared to August last year stood at 89 percent, while inflation for food and beverages reached 127 percent, exceeding 150 percent in some provinces (Statistical Center of Iran, August 28). Naturally, the actual inflation rate is even higher. Meanwhile, the crisis of medicine shortages and skyrocketing prices has taken on much larger dimensions, making life significantly harder for workers, laborers, and wage earners.
Hadi Ahmadi, spokesperson for the Iranian Association of Pharmacists, stated in this regard: “The price of medicine has increased by an average of about 80 percent since the beginning of the year, and for some items, this increase has reached 300 percent” (Eghtesad Online, August 28, 2026). In other words, annual inflation for medicines averages around 200 percent, reaching up to 700 percent for certain drugs.
One of the key factors restricting access to medicine is the regime’s massive debt to pharmacies. By plundering health insurance funds deducted from the salaries of employees and workers over many years, the regime has failed to reimburse pharmacies for the cost of medicines. According to Ettelaat Online, “the 20-trillion-toman debt of insurance companies to pharmacies has put many of them on the verge of closure” (August 28, 2026).
The crisis of medicine in Iran is a long-standing issue that grows more severe by the day. The root of this problem lies in the fact that for years, the production and distribution of medicine have been monopolized by supreme leader Khamenei’s office. This issue becomes even more critical given that, according to Dr. Hojjatollah Yazdanshenas, the former head of the Iranian Pharmacists Association, “97 percent of the medicine needed by the country is produced domestically” (Azerbaijan newspaper, September 16, 2020).
These monopolies are concentrated in two major institutions: the “Barekat Pharmaceutical Group” and the “Tamin Pharmaceutical Investment Company (TPICO),” both of which are controlled by Khamenei’s office. Barekat Pharmaceutical Group was established in 2010 and operates more than 15 subsidiaries, including “Alborz Darou,” which itself controls 11 subsidiary companies (Barekat Company website).
Tamin Pharmaceutical (TPICO) has a total of 26 pharmaceutical subsidiaries involved in production, distribution, and other sectors. One of TPICO’s most prominent subsidiaries is the Darou Pakhsh Company, which employs 4,400 workers (SHASTA website).
To illustrate the scale of plunder by this pharmaceutical monopoly in recent years, consider two examples. The state-run Shargh newspaper wrote in 2022: “A drug that is produced domestically at a cost of 500,000 tomans, and whose distribution route is fully transparent, is sold for 25 million tomans” (February 28, 2022). This means the retail price of the medicine is inflated to 50 times its production cost.
In another instance, Pirsalehi, the former head of the Food and Drug Administration, announced: “Some ampoules that used to cost 5,000 or 6,000 tomans have now reached 19,000 tomans” (Arman-e Emrooz newspaper, March 3, 2025).
As long as the mullahs’ anti-human regime remains in power, poverty, inflation, and corruption will continue to surge. The only solution is an uprising to overthrow the regime and establish democracy and popular sovereignty.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)
31 August 2026