Iran producing monoclonal cancer drugs
Iranian Health Minister Marzieh Vahid-Dastjerdi says the country is currently producing more than a dozen types of monoclonal antibodies, a new generation of drugs to treat cancer.
The production of monoclonal antibodies (mAb) aims at developing new drugs that would only bind to cancer cell-specific antigens and induce an immunological response against the target cancer cell.
These mAbs could also be modified for delivery of a toxin or other active ingredients to the affected cell, an act which would facilitate the killing.
”In collaboration with the Iranian Presidential Office’s Scientific Deputyship, fifteen types of monoclonal antibodies [to be used as] anti-cancer medicines are being made [in Iran], using very high technology,” Mehr News Agency quoted her as saying on Saturday.
Vahid-Dastjerdi added, ”The drugs are very expensive and, for instance, the cost associated with one of these medicines costs 530 million rials (around USD 50,222).”
These good quality drugs have not only lowered the cost of treatment course in the country but also may soon be exported to foreign countries, the minister said.
”Through domestic production of these medicines, their prices fall by 35, 40, and sometimes up to 50 percent,” she noted, saying that self-sufficiency in this regard had saved the country 3 trillion rials (USD 3 billion).
Source: presstv.ir
