The medical tourism industry is flourishing in Iran
With a population of nearly 35 million inhabitants Iran has been investing so heavily in the healthcare sector that, as reported by Health Tech last July about 95% of Iranians have now access to healthcare, relying on one doctor or physician every 845 citizens. But the greatest resource for the nation is presently represented by the medical tourism phenomenon that brought at least 86,000 people to Teheran in the first six months of 2013 with a 135% growth over last year’s figures. Most of them come from bordering countries such as Azerbaijan, Pakistan, Turkey, Iraq and Turkmenistan, but many visitors are also from Kuwait, India or Oman. Most frequently requested services include dentistry, ophthalmic, orthopedic and transplants, as Health Tech noted, and that translated this year into a 1,5 billion Us dollars business for former Persia. Frost & Sullivan pointed out instead that 90% of drugs and medicines traded in the country are also developed in Iran, but analysts considered that most of the share comes from generic drugs, with China and India seen as net exporters of specialized high end products. Also, quoted by Health Tech, the Californian research firm reported that «Iran imports over 70% of its medical devices» and this market could rocket up to the value of 1,5 billion Us dollars by 2017. Other sources have instead underlined the fact that Iran is well positioned in the top five of the world’s leading countries in the biotech arena and that besides low end and low cost generic drugs it can also offer a wide variety of innovative products and solutions, among which the Imod, an anti-Aids treatment. And thousands of medical tourists cross the Iranian border to access such therapies as fertility treatments, stem cell treatments, dialysis and heart surgery, cosmetic or eye surgery.