![\"Iran-hemophilia\"](\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/05\/Iran-hemophilia.jpg\" "\\"Iran-hemophilia\\"")
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By Staff Writer<\/p>\n
Due to being in debt to pharmaceutical companies, some medical science universities don\u2019t deliver special patients\u2019 drug quota in a timely manner, thus making difficulties for patients, says director of Iran\u2019s Hemophilia Society.<\/p>\n
In an interview with state-run ILNA news agency on May 23, 2018, Ahmad Ghavidel points to hemophilia drugs status, saying \u201cwe\u2019re not faced with a drug crisis at the moment as there\u2019s still enough drug reserve in the country. The government still doesn\u2019t need to import additional drugs so they can stay away from recent currency fluctuations. Nonetheless, for some reasons the drugs are not made available to all patients.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year, we saw drug distribution companies crossing the red lines, as they refused to deliver drugs to indebted hospitals. And we\u2019re experiencing the same situation this year as well,\u201d adds Ghavidel.<\/p>\n
Director of Iran\u2019s Hemophilia Society says \u201cright now, some universities of medical science are not able to deliver special patients\u2019 drug quota in a timely manner due to being in debt to pharmaceutical companies, and this has led to problems for patients. One of drug distribution companies even refuses to deliver the drugs to hemophilia treatment centers.<\/p>\n
\u201cDespite there being plenty, drugs are not made available to patients. Some universities of medical science don\u2019t deliver drugs to patients. In Lorestan, for example, they don\u2019t have plasma-derived factor VIII, since the drug distribution company refuses to deliver the drug before the previous debts are settled. This reflects the mechanism that\u2019s currently in effect in the country. Government subsidies for hemophilia and other difficult to cure diseases are now allocated to insuring companies. This is the biggest challenge the special patients are faced with right now: the subsidies being given to insurers that are basically neither professional nor do they care about healthcare.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe insuring companies are currently government funded. They receive heavy payments from the government. Meanwhile, they only offer their services as long as they\u2019re paid and will stop it as soon as the government payments fail. They have no motive for working in the insurance sector, nor do they care about preventing diseases, and this is a big challenge for the country\u2019s healthcare.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hemophilia patients\u2019 bleeding won\u2019t be stopped with promises<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cInsurance companies assume that hemophilia patients won\u2019t need any more medications once they receive their quota of 20 drugs at eight million tomans. That\u2019s while the patients\u2019 bleeding is not dependent on such assumptions,\u201d says Ghavidel, adding \u201cHemophilia is not a disease for which you can set a drug quota. A simple accident like twisting an ankle or getting caught in a metro crowd may lead to bleeding in hemophilia patients. So, insuring plans are the biggest concern for such patients.<\/p>\n \u201cThe heavily indebted insuring companies meanwhile tend to pass this crisis over to distributing companies, which in turn can\u2019t afford to pay drug importers, and thus hemophilia patients\u2019 drug supply chain is constantly at risk. This is while we\u2019re still away from currency related problems. The question is what will happen if we reach that point? Needless to say, new problems will arise.\u201d<\/p>\n Why Rouhani\u2019s government excluded hemophilia drugs from the list of items subject to Goods and Currencies Smuggling Law<\/strong><\/p>\n In a strange move and without providing any convincing explanation, Rouhani\u2019s government excluded hemophilia drugs from the list of items subject to the Goods and Currencies Smuggling Law, regardless of the fact that these are considered as specialty drugs.<\/p>\n \u201cIt would be considered an instance of smuggling if someone attempts to take subsidized drugs out of the country. But in an abrupt legislation they decided that hemophilia drugs are no longer subject to Goods and Currencies Smuggling Law since they\u2019re not subsidized by the government any more. The fact, however, is that the subsidies are still being paid for such drugs, but these are the insuring companies that fully receive it\u201d, says Ghavidel.<\/p>\n \u201cThe subsidies used to be paid to importers. Now, however, the insuring companies receive it. Its\u2019 really surprising, the fact that the monitoring bodies didn\u2019t ask for any explanation in this regard, nor did they question the government\u2019s legislation.<\/p>\n \u201cThe insuring companies don\u2019t pay for such drugs out of their own income. Anytime you ask them \u201cwhy don\u2019t you pay the hospitals?\u201d they answer \u201cbecause we\u2019ve not been paid by the government.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSo, the money they receive from the government is subsidy, and thus all hemophilia drugs are subsidized and according to the law should be subject to the Goods and Currencies Smuggling Law. So, why were they simply excluded through an enactment?\u201d<\/p>\n Domestically produced hemophilia drugs lack international licenses<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cSome say that they want to export domestic drugs, but they can\u2019t be exported since they\u2019re subsidized by the government. This is however not a convincing explanation, because if the legislation aims to facilitate export of domestic drugs, then the first step towards that goal is to obtain international licenses for such drugs, since without them no export would be possible. So, the question is why they passed such a law while no international licenses have been obtained. That\u2019s why we don\u2019t understand what policy the government is pursuing in this regard,\u201d says director of Iran\u2019s Hemophilia Society, adding \u201care they aware that how problematic the drug supply chain has become after allocating such a huge amount of money to insuring companies that are drowning in debt? Which auditing organization is monitoring the amounts to be put to good use in hospitals and insuring companies? This is a real challenge for Iranian hemophilia patients.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Staff Writer Due to being in debt to pharmaceutical companies, some medical science universities don’t deliver special patients’ drug quota in a timely manner, thus making difficulties for patients, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":51341,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[178],"class_list":{"0":"post-24813","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-society","8":"tag-save"},"yoast_head":"\n