Iran develops drug for RA patients amid sanctions
Yusef Jalali
Press TV, Tehran
Meet PerkinRA, an all Iranian drug for treating rheumatoid arthritis in children.
The drug is a new formulation of Anakinra, or what is internationally known as Kineret which is a product of a Swedish pharmaceutical company.
Iranian biotech company, PersisGen, say PerkinRA is the first Iranian biopharmaceutical medication that is developed from A to Z inside Iran.
In Rheumatoid arthritis, or shortly RA, the immune system attacks healthy cells in the body by mistake, causing painful swelling in the joints.
In Iran, around 500,000 people are suffering from the condition.
They get weekly injections of an American jab, which is highly unavailable in Iran due to US sanctions that prevent the country from paying for foreign medicine.
PesisGen says it has so far manufactured 60,000 syringes of PerkinRA for distribution in the Iranian market.
At the same time, it has initiated exports to three countries of Ukraine, Turkey and the Philippines.
Prompted by years of US sanctions that have blocked Iranians' access to life saving medicine, Iran is trying to gain self sufficiency in the strategic sector.
And this biotech firm says PerkinRA is a byproduct of that pressure, which will obviate the need for Iranian RA patients to desperately wait for American medicine.
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