A leading pharmaceutical industry figure warned that Iran faces inevitable production disruptions and severe drug shortages by March, as renewed UN sanctions under the snapback mechanism tighten access to foreign currency and strain supply chains.
Iran’s current level of preparedness surpasses that seen before the 12-day war, Araghchi said in an interview published on Friday with US-based journalist Dariush Sajjadi.
“Being ready does not mean expecting war,” he said. “If you are ready to fight, no one dares to attack. I am confident the previous experience will not be repeated, and any mistake will meet the same response.”
The United States held five rounds of talks with Tehran earlier this year over its disputed nuclear program, under a 60-day ultimatum set by President Donald Trump.
When no deal was reached by the 61st day, June 13, Israel launched a surprise military campaign, culminating in US strikes on June 22 targeting key nuclear sites in Esfahan, Natanz, and Fordow.
While the 12-day war ended on June 24 following a US-brokered truce, global concerns over Tehran’s nuclear program grew even more complicated as 400 kilograms of Iran’s highly enriched uranium remains missing.
Tehran says the material was buried under rubble from US and Israeli airstrikes and is inaccessible but has yet to allow international inspectors access to the damaged facilities.
No nuclear weapon
Araghchi dismissed international concerns about Iran's possible pursuit of a nuclear weapon, saying the country's nuclear program is “completely peaceful and legally grounded,” citing a religious decree forbidding nuclear weapons.
“Our nuclear doctrine does not include nuclear arms,” he said. “We pursue enrichment because it is our right, not because we seek a bomb. Our atomic bomb is the power to say no.”
While Iran denies seeking a nuclear weapon, the UN's nuclear watchdog argues that enrichment to high levels of purity lacks any civilian justification.
In 2018, President Trump withdrew the United States from the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran (JCPOA), calling it flawed and too lenient. He then launched a maximum pressure campaign, reimposing harsh sanctions to cripple Iran’s economy and force broader concessions on its nuclear and regional activities. After his reelection, Trump intensified the same strategy.
Relations with the United States
On ties with Washington, Araghchi said the main obstacle lies in what he called America’s “hegemonic character.”
“As long as the United States behaves with domination and Iran refuses to submit, this problem will persist,” he said. “But it can be managed—we do not have to pay every price.”
He cited repeated failed negotiations as evidence of mistrust. “We negotiated, reached agreements, and fulfilled them, yet each time the US broke its word,” he said.
"In New York (during the UN General Assembly in September), there was an opportunity for talks, but they made completely unreasonable and illogical demands — for instance, that we hand over all our enriched material to them in exchange for a six-month extension of the snapback. What sane person would accept that? It has nothing to do with Iran at all."
Araghchi said "there is no basis for trust, though diplomacy is never abandoned. If the US is ready to talk, with honesty and mutual respect, Iran is prepared for a rational and balanced agreement.”
Iran will not yield its rights or tolerate coercion but remains open to any reasonable and fair solution that preserves national dignity, he concluded.
Projections based on 2024 and 2025 data, compiled before the reactivation of UN sanctions on September 28, show a widening gap between Iran’s foreign currency allocations and the pharmaceutical sector’s import needs, Mojtaba Sarkandi told reformist daily Etemad on Sunday.
“The industry operates on two realities,” Sarkandi said. “While up to 99 percent of the country’s medicines are domestically produced, a significant share of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and key stabilizing compounds still come from abroad, mostly China and India.”
International sanctions have severely disrupted Iran’s access to medicine and medical equipment, according to the report by Etemad.
Although humanitarian goods are formally exempt from sanctions, restrictions on banking, shipping, and insurance have made it difficult for Iranian importers to pay for or transport essential drugs. As a result, hospitals and pharmacies often face shortages of life-saving medicines, especially for cancer, multiple sclerosis, and rare diseases.
Foreign currency squeeze and rising import costs
The government, according to Sarkandi, allocated about $3.4 billion in foreign currency for medicines and medical equipment this year, yet recent shortages in available hard currency have already reduced access to funding by 10 to 20 percent.
“Following the snapback, manufacturers and importers of raw materials are facing new complications with banking, insurance, and logistics,” he said. “The outcome will be clear: a shortage of drugs.”
Shipping and insurance costs, he said, have risen by 30 to 50 percent since September, while the collapse of banking channels has extended import timelines from three months to as long as six.
“These added costs, combined with the weakening rial, increase the overall cost of imported materials by about 40 percent,” Sarkandi added. “Eventually, insurers and patients will bear the burden.”
The shortages, he said, will likely hit cancer and biotech drugs hardest, a pattern seen during the 2012 and 2018 sanction periods. The import of cold-chain biological medicines is also expected to suffer as foreign insurers withdraw coverage.
The crisis has forced patients to rely on expensive black-market drugs or delayed treatment, while domestic pharmaceutical production struggles with limited access to raw materials.
Industry blames policy failures as much as sanctions
Another unnamed industry executive told Etemad that government mismanagement has compounded the impact of sanctions.
“Sanctions may explain 40 percent of the crisis,” he said. “The rest stems from policy mistakes -- delayed currency allocation, arbitrary pricing, and poor transparency.”
Producers, he said, face mounting losses due to state-imposed pricing caps while their production costs soar.
“When the cost of sterile water or aluminum foil rises by 50 percent but prices remain frozen, factories cannot sustain output,” he said.
He urged the government to inject funds into insurance organizations to settle debts to pharmacies, warning that without such relief, “the entire drug supply chain -- from manufacturer to patient -- could seize up.”
Health officials have pledged to secure the sector’s financial lifelines, but industry insiders warn that without dedicated payment channels for medicine, the shortages will soon worsen.
