US Sanctions Blessing for Dialysis Patients in Iran!

The country has now joined Germany, the United States, Sweden, Japan, and Italy in the club of dialysis machine manufacturers.

Dialysis started in Iran in the 60’s. Until the 1970s, dialysis machines were still limited and there was little public access to this type of healthcare throughout the country. But in the 1970s, the number of dialysis centres in Iran gradually increased, and by the 1980s the number of dialysis facilities in small towns had increased.

It was at this time that US sanctions extended to this part of the medical world, and at a time of shortage of dialysis machines, Iranian patients were threatened. Dialysis consumables, including filters, are disposable items and it is impossible to use dialysis machines without them.

In those days, there were reports that the treatment of patients was being disrupted with the shutdown of dialysis machines in some medical centres due to lack of proper filters. At this time, a community of Iranian physicians, engineers and entrepreneurs began studying the technology of making dialysis consumables and their efforts yielded a good result.

Sanctions have increased or decreased over time depending on political developments. After years of research, dialysis consumables have finally started to be produced in Iran. However, due to insufficient imports of these items at that time, there was little tendency to consume domestic products.

In 2013, when serious sanctions were imposed on the medical sector, the value of such achievement was realised. Iranian dialysis products had been tested in laboratories and received national and international approval, and the use of these products has been put on the agenda of health centres. In that year, Iran had 475 dialysis centres, with 4,600 dialysis beds active every day. However the country was short of about 2,000 dialysis machines. Some in Iran again thought that this time dialysis machines should be produced in the country and serious work began. At the same time, the quantity and quality of the production of consumables and dialysis filters in Iran were also developed.

Iran Develops Exclusive Technology

There were still problems in 2018 with the US withdrawal from the nuclear deal and the return of the sanctions, but this time the concerns were not serious; Iran was self-sufficient in producing dialysis consumables, including filters. Iranian high-quality filters have long been mass-produced and even exported to Germany!

But Iranian scientists also unveiled the first Iranian dialysis machine that year. Iran was the only country to manufacture dialysis machines after Germany, the US, Sweden, Japan and Italy. Iran now has 570 dialysis centres with 7,000 dialysis machines. Of course, Iran is still short of dialysis machines and it takes some time for the Iranian dialysis machines to gradually replace the old ones. However, the Islamic Republic is moving towards self-sufficiency in the manufacturing of dialysis machines.

In the field of dialysis consumables, in addition to medical equipment manufacturing plants, more than ten knowledge-based companies are active in the field of dialysis consumables, and every day there are reports of a new Iranian technology or innovation for dialysis.