Mohammad Reza Shanesaz, the head of Food and Drug Administration of the Islamic Republic of Iran (FDA) announced on Friday that three local companies are ready to produce the antiviral drug Favipiravir, which is said to be effective in the treatment of COVID-19, Mehr News Agency reported.

He said that production of Favipiravir in Iran is in the phase of clinical trials and as planned the primary substance of its will be domestically produced in the near future.

Shanehsaz added that in case of any deficiency, Iran has imports of anti-coronavirus medicine on agenda, as well.

On April 8, the Iranian version of antiviral drug Favipiravir, which is said to be effective in treating the coronavirus, begun clinical trials through efforts of researchers at Shahid Beheshti Medical University.

Researchers at Shahid Beheshti Medical University launched small trials of the antiviral drug Favipiravir at Masih Daneshvari Hospital, which is one of the leading medical centers treating patients with the new coronavirus infection in the Iranian capital.

On April 5, the head of Iran’s Masih Daneshvari Hospital, Ali Akbar Velayati, said Iran has produced Favipiravir for the first time.

“Fortunately, Favipiravir was produced for the first time at Shahid Beheshti Medical University’s School of Pharmacy and has been made available to Masih Daneshvari Hospital to be used for the treatment of coronavirus patients,” Velayati said.

The new development came as US sanctions hinder the country’s access to drugs and medical equipment.

The flu drug was hailed by Chinese health officials as “clearly effective” when used on 340 patients in trials there that showed reduced recovery time and improved lung function.

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An Iranian knowledge-based company managed to manufacture an ozone generator that can be used against the coronavirus, Iran Press reported.

The ozone generator device could be used to disinfect house, office, hospital, rooms, car, and the bed of a coronavirus patient as well as fruits and vegetables. Ozone gas has also been used to fight fungi, bacteria, germs as well as SARS and influenza viruses.

East Asian countries have also used this method to fight the coronavirus.

This Iranian knowledge-based company was able to indigenize the ozone generator device with a third of the price of its similar foreign product.

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Director of Iran’s National Petrochemical Company (NPC)’s Projects says with several new projects going operational, the country’s petrochemical production capacity is going to increase significantly in the current Iranian calendar year (started on March 20).

“In the year of “Surge in Production”, the petrochemical industry is trying to benefit from the most of the domestic capabilities and with new petrochemical projects being inaugurated, the production capacity in this industry will increase significantly,” IRNA quoted Ali-Mohammad Bosaqzadeh as saying.

He said the petrochemical industry is now the center and pillar of the country’s economic development and is in close collaboration with all industrial sectors, adding that injecting resources into the productive sectors and prohibiting the waste of national resources can lead to the second and third leaps in the petrochemical industry.

Noting that the balanced development of the petrochemical industry is of particular interest among NPC strategies for the current year, he said: “In this regard, the development of downstream petrochemical industries is going to prevent the sale of raw materials and will result in the production of products with higher added value.”

He further noted that most of the underway projects in this industry are currently using domestic equipment, licenses and technological knowledge of Iranian experts.

Considering the undeniable significance of the petrochemical industry in Iran’s resilient economy in the sanctions era, the Iranian Oil Ministry and the country’s National Petrochemical Company have been taking major steps to facilitate further development of this industry in recent years.

Back in September 2019, Bosaqzadeh noted that Iran‘s annual petrochemical output, which is currently at nearly 70 million tons, is planned to reach more than 100 million tons by the Iranian calendar year of 1400 (ends on March 2022) and to 130 million tons or nearly doubled) by 1404 (ends on March 2026).

Also in August 2019, Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh had announced that the country’s annual petrochemical output is expected to reach more than 100 million tons by 2021, despite U.S. sanctions.

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Some 750,787 tons of goods were exported from the northern Iranian province of Mazandaran to the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) countries during the previous Iranian calendar year (which ended on March 19), indicating a 76 percent growth year-on-year.

Ali Yousefi, the head of Nowshahr Customs Office, added main exported items included dairy products, plastic products, cement and minerals, putting the value of the annual overseas sales at $32.92 million, Mehr News Agency reported.

The official noted that over two million tons of different products worth $685.77 million were imported from the EAEU member states to the province during the same period.

The imports witnessed an increase of 97 percent and 17 percent in terms of weight and value, respectively, he added.

Earlier, the ‎spokesman for the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA) said the value of Iran’s trade with the EAEU exceeded $1.4 billion in five months ‎following the going into effect of a preferential trade agreement between the two sides.

Rouhollah Latifi added the agreement went into force on October 27, 2019, IRNA reported. ‎

Putting at $1.48 billion the exact value of the trade transactions between the two sides during October 27, ‎‎2019-March 25, 2020, he noted that of this figure, 67 percent pertained to Iran’s imports from the EAEU‎ ‎members and 33 percent to the country’s exports.

Latifi said the weight and value of Iran’s overseas sales to the EAEU countries stood ‎at 1.15 million tons and $489 million, putting Iran’s imports at 2.95 million tons in terms of weight and $999.3 million value-wise. ‎

Seeking to substantially increase trade, Iran and the EAEU signed a three-year provisional ‎agreement in Astana, Kazakhstan, in May 2018. ‎

Based on the preferential trade agreement the two sides have three years to upgrade the treaty into a full-‎fledged free trade deal that lowers or abolishes customs duties.

As part of the provisional preferential trade agreement, the average tariff set by the EAEU for imports of ‎Iranian goods stands at 3.1 percent, while Iran’s average tariff for imported commodities from the EAEU ‎amounts to 12.9 percent, according to the deputy head of Iran’s Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines ‎and Agriculture for international affairs, Mohammadreza Karbasi.‎

In September 2017, Iran lifted the customs tariffs on certain agricultural products exported to the EAEU states to encourage overseas sales to countries such as Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Mazandaran accounts for 40 percent, 50 percent and 10 percent of Iran’s rice, citrus and poultry meat production.

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A subsidiary company of Iran’s Barkat Ventures is manufacturing oxygen ‎concentrators and ventilators in an effort to help those who are infected ‎with the coronavirus in the country, said its CEO. ‎

Iran’s Barkat Ventures is a knowledge-based institute affiliated with the ‎headquarters for the Execution of Imam Khomeini’s Order (EIKO). ‎Established as EIKO’s executive arm in the development of the country’s ‎knowledge-based economy, Barkat Ventures’ mission is the creation and ‎expansion of the ecosystem and infrastructure required for the ‎development of knowledge and knowledge-based activities in the country, ‎according to barkatventures.com.‎

To these ends, it has placed on its agenda making the maximum use of the ‎capabilities of domestic scientists and experts and expanding cooperation ‎with the country’s institutes and organizations involved in the fields of ‎science, technology and the knowledge-based economy. ‎

Commenting on his company’s activities in an exclusive interview with ‎Iran Daily, Peyman Bakhshandeh-Nejad added, “In cooperation with a ‎number of researchers of a new technology-based firm, we started our ‎activities at Sharif [University’s] Advanced Technologies Incubator in 2014. ‎Two years later, the company produced its first oxygen concentrator as ‎part of a project funded by Barkat Ventures.”‎

He said in the beginning, the company was highly dependent on imports ‎for manufacturing the device, purchasing almost 80 percent of the spare ‎parts from other countries, noting that, however, in 2018 EIKO supported ‎the company, enabling it to produce oxygen concentrators without having ‎to rely on imports.‎

Since late 2019, Bakhshandeh-Nejad added, domestic production of all ‎spare parts required for manufacturing the device has begun. ‎

He said, previously, the company’s production line manufactured five ‎oxygen concentrators per day, noting that following the coronavirus ‎outbreak in Iran, the number of the produced devices has increased to 30 ‎per day. ‎

In the aftermath of the coronavirus outbreak, EIKO placed on its agenda ‎increased investments in the domestic production of ventilators and other ‎medical equipment required for combatting the virus. This was done in ‎view of the rise in domestic demand for such products and due to the ‎unjust US sanctions on the Iran impeding imports of such ‎devices. ‎

In May 2018, President Donald Trump pulled the US out of the Joint ‎‎Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), ‎signed between Iran and the P5+1 ‎in July ‎‎2015, and reimposed Washington’s unilateral sanctions on ‎Tehran. ‎The sanctions ‎have hindered, among other things, the delivery of ‎international ‎humanitarian ‎aid, medicine and medical equipment to Iran, ‎particularly, now that the ‎country is fighting against the ‎coronavirus. ‎

Bakhshandeh-Nejad added the price of his company’s oxygen concentrators ‎are far lower than their foreign counterparts, saying his firm has also made ‎significant progress in terms of providing after-sales service since it cut ‎dependence on imports. ‎

In addition to his company, he said, two other domestic firms are also ‎manufacturing the device, noting that one of them has launched a Chinese ‎assembly line for production of oxygen concentrators.‎

The company’s CEO put domestic demand for oxygen concentrators at ‎‎2,000 per month, stressing that the current level of production meets the ‎country’s demand for the device.‎

Bakhshandeh-Nejad said that since 2018, his company has begun ‎manufacturing a type of ventilator known as BiPAP – standing for bi-level ‎positive airway pressure. ‎

‎“The machine was selected in 2018 as the most unique medical equipment ‎produced in Iran.”‎

He said earlier that his company manufactured only up to three ventilators ‎per day, adding that since the coronavirus outbreak, its daily production ‎stands at 10 machines. ‎

‎“We have delivered 250 previously-produced ventilators to the Health ‎Ministry since the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak in the country.” ‎

Bakhshandeh-Nejad added his company has recently finished making a ‎ventilator exclusive to coronavirus patients known as average volume-‎assured pressure support (AVAPS). ‎

He noted that mass production of the newly-built machine will begin in a ‎few days, saying the company is expected to manufacture 20 AVAPS ‎ventilators per day. ‎

‎“The Health Ministry has announced that it currently needs 1,500 AVAPS ‎ventilators.”‎

The coronavirus, which causes a respiratory illness, emerged in the central ‎‎Chinese city of Wuhan in ‎Hubei Province late last year and is currently ‎affecting a ‎large number of countries and territories across ‎the globe. It has ‎infected and killed ‎people in a large number of countries. ‎

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Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says friendly countries should exert pressure on the United States to lift its “cruel and one-sided” sanctions against Tehran at the current juncture that the Islamic Republic is diligently fighting the deadly new coronavirus pandemic.

In a phone call with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, on Monday, the Iranian president emphasized that it is more difficult for Iran in comparison with other countries to battle the coronavirus when it is under the US sanctions.

“The US administration has not only violated international regulations by imposing illegal sanctions on Iran, but is also breaching health regulations ratified by the World Health Organization in 2005 through its measures under the current circumstances,” Rouhani said.

The Iranian president once again expressed the country’s readiness to return to full compliance with its commitments under the nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), it clinched with major world powers in 2015 only if all sanctions against the country are removed.

“The removal of sanctions and fulfillment of its commitments by Europe are a necessity, which has become more significant at the current specific situation,” the Iranian president pointed out.

The United States reinstated its sanctions against Iran in May 2018 after leaving a United Nations-endorsed nuclear agreement with the Islamic Republic and five other major powers — the UK, France, Russia, China plus Germany.

Since then, Washington has corded other countries to follow suit and mount pressure on Iran or face punishment.
Former world officials: US sanctions compromising Iran healthcare system amid pandemic

The United States has refused to lift sanctions on Iran and even tightened them several times in recent weeks, making it almost impossible for the Islamic Republic to access life-saving medications and medical equipment necessary in the fight against the deadly new coronavirus pandemic.

Iran says the unilateral US sanctions have seriously hampered its fight against the pandemic.

Presenting the latest update on Monday, Iran’s Health Ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour reported 2,274 new infections and 136 more deaths from the virus over the past 24 hours.

In total, 60,500 Iranians have tested positive for COVID-19 while 3,739 have died, he pointed out, adding that 24,236 patients have fully recovered so far.

Elsewhere in his remarks, the Iranian president welcomed an initiative by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to declare a global ceasefire amid the coronavirus pandemic, expressing hope that it would also include the economic war on Iran.

The UN chief on Friday renewed his call for a global ceasefire, urging all parties in conflict to lay down arms and allow war-torn nations to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

“The worst is yet to come,” Guterres said, referring to countries beset with fighting like Syria, Libya, and Yemen, adding, “The COVID-19 storm is now coming to all these theaters of conflict.”

Rouhani also described as “positive but insufficient” the initial steps taken to implement INSTEX, a trade mechanism set up by Britain, France and Germany in 2019 to protect companies doing business with Iran from Washington’s sanctions. He emphasized that the mechanism should not be limited only to medical equipment and food, but must be also implemented in a way that would enable Iran to “use it to meet all our country’s requirements.”

The three European signatories to the JCPOA unveiled the long-awaited direct non-dollar payment mechanism meant to safeguard their trade ties with Tehran following the US withdrawal from the nuclear deal and in the face of the “toughest ever” sanctions imposed by the United States against the Islamic Republic./ Press TV

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Iranian feature film ‘Selfie with Democracy’ was nominated for the best international film award at the 3rd Annual Southeast Regional Film Festival in United States.

Directed by Ali Atshani, the movie has a supernatural plot. It is about those who were present in the Iran-Iraq War and it almost a sequel of the feature film “Democracy in Daylight”.

The Southeast Regional Film Festival will take place on May 31 in Jacksonville, Florida.

The American Brightlight Film Productions is the international distributor of the film. It is the second international presence of the movie. It was once screened at the 70th Berlin International Film Festival.

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The guardian, Pirouz Hanachi is the mayor of Tehran: As mayor of Tehran I have seen lives lost as a result of medical shortages. This is no time for vindictive politics .To many of us urban administrators in Iran, the onslaught of coronavirus has underscored an important fact of life: no town, city or nation can be indifferent to global crises, even in far-flung corners of our world.

Indeed, while the mantra of good governance over the past century has been to “think global, act local”, we must today think and act both locally and globally.

Unfortunately, the small-mindedness that has dominated the politics of various countries in past years has not dissipated. Rather, those who have aggressively advocated pursuit of narrowly defined “national interests” at any cost are doubling down. The consequences of this posturing are many.

In Iran, urban administrators are left facing an unprecedented public health crisis. Figures show that 3,160 had died from the disease by 2 April and there are more than 50,000 cases of infection. The rate of infections is not yet slowing, and many of them are in Tehran, the city of which I am mayor.

Doubtless there are things that we could do differently, like every country in the world. But we are operating against the backdrop of the most extreme sanctions regime in history. The US embargo not only prohibits American companies and individuals from conducting lawful trade with Iranian counterparts, but given that the sanctions are extra-territorial, all other countries and companies are also bullied into refraining from doing legitimate business with Iranians, even the selling of medicines.

As a result, the ability of my colleagues and I to provide the health, logistical and other essential infrastructure necessary to combat the disease has been drastically reduced. We experience this loss every day, and it can be counted in people that would not have died.
This unjust treatment of Iran has come about via the policies of one country – the United States – whose ruling administration does not seem to prioritise even its own national interests, but instead the narrow interests of a governing party. The outcome of such irresponsible policies and behaviour is not limited to Iran; they have also inflicted harm on the American public.

Indeed, the Donald Trump administration’s refusal to halt its economic warfare against Iran is directly impeding our efforts to deal with a virus which knows no borders. Is it in the US’s national interest for the coronavirus pandemic to become permanent?

In order to better confront these new global crises, there is a need for politicians to realise that the path to pursuing national interests is not separate or contrary to that of global interests and international accountability.

Of equal importance, it must be recognised that as long as the general consensus in international politics does not actively move toward reducing injustice and inequality beyond national and racial boundaries, global crises will continue to indiscriminately endanger every country in the world.

The world cannot go on like this. If global leaders fail to seize the opportunity to embrace change, we will all continue to remain highly vulnerable to communicable diseases, environmental catastrophes, global warming, terrorism, violent extremism and other shared threats.

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Iranian farmers managed to produce up to 30 million tons of vegetable products in the previous Iranian calendar year of 1398 (ended on March 19), according to a senior official with the Agriculture Ministry.

“In addition to meeting the needs of the domestic markets, over $1.4 billion worth of vegetable products were also exported to other countries during the last year,” ILNA quoted Hossein Asqari as saying.

According to the official, considering the potentials of the country’s agricultural sector, it is possible to increase the capacity of vegetable production by more than 10 billion tons within three years.

“Using modern production methods like systematic irrigation, seedling cultivation and mulching (creating a cover to prevent water evaporation), we can achieve this increase in production without increasing the water consumption,” he said.

The increase in the production will ultimately lead to an increase in the volume of exports, so appropriate measures should be taken in order to prepare the grounds for such an increase.

Iran exported 3.27 million tons of vegetables worth $935 million during the first ten months of the previous Iranian calendar year (March 21, 2019 – January 20, 2020), Asqari added.

He said neighboring countries especially Russia were the major export destinations of the Iranian vegetables during the mentioned period.

He noted that 65-70 percent of the country’s seed requirement is domestically met and put the annual need for seed at about 4,000-4,500 tons.

According to the country’s Horticultural Science Research Institute, Iran has nearly 900,000 hectares of land under vegetable cultivation and produces over 28 million tons of different kinds of vegetables per year, making it the seventh and fifth in the world in terms of land under cultivation and volume of production respectively.

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Three major Iranian carmakers, namely Iran Khodro Company (IKCO), SAIPA Group and Pars Khodro, manufactured 863,263 vehicles during the past Iranian calendar year (ended on March 19), IRNA reported citing the data released by Codal website.

According to the data, during the previous year, IKCO manufactured 393,812 vehicles, of which 35,953 were produced in the last Iranian calendar month of Esfand (February 20-March 19).

Production by SAIPA stood at 363,379, of which 23,696 vehicles were manufactured during the last month.

Pars Khodro manufactured 106,072 cars during the past year. Production in Esfand reached 9,300 vehicles.

Iran has been following a program for supporting domestic manufacturing of auto parts since due to the U.S. sanctions the country’s automakers have been facing some problems in supplying their needed parts and equipment.

Industry, Mining and Trade Minister Reza Rahmani has said that the policy of domestic manufacturing of auto parts should be seriously followed up and in this due capable manufacturers should be supported.

In January, Iranian Auto Parts Makers Association’s Secretary Maziar Beyglou announced that Iran has achieved 80 percent self-sufficiency in the manufacturing of auto parts.

The official expressed hope that self-reliance in this sector reaches 90 percent through domestic production of required raw materials.

Domestic parts manufacturers are able to play a key role in creating a boom in the country’s manufacturing and employment sectors, in addition to playing their leading role as the auto industry’s intermediates, Beyglou said.

Mentioning the industry ministry’s strategies for promoting domestic production, the official said: “Following the current policies, we will see the production of a number of new vehicles from domestic automakers in the coming years.”

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