The Iraqi Association for Pharmaceutical Manufacturers announced plans to increase the number of pharmaceutical factories in the country.
Ahmad Ali Ibrahim, head of the Association, told Baghdad Today that half of the medications used in Iraq are manufactured by local factories.
He said that Iraq annually consumes approximately three and a half billion dollars’ worth of medication, with the national sector accounting for around 17% of that value, but in terms of quantity, local products cover approximately 50% of the market, as Iraqi medicines are both affordable and of high quality.
He emphasized that local medicines maintain higher reliability in terms of quality compared to imported foreign medicines, as they are manufactured in accordance with strong and authentic scientific standards.
“There are currently 25 factories in Iraq, with the government-owned Samarra factory and one semi-private facility among them, while the remainder belong to the private sector. Plans are underway to construct another 30 factories in the upcoming months,” he said.
According to the association, the pharmaceutical industry in Iraq lags behind global standards and those of neighboring countries, attributing this to the policies of previous Iraqi governments over the past six decades.
