An official of Iran’s drug importers union says official claims of self-sufficiency in production of raw materials for medicine and pharmaceutical products is not true.

In an interview with Iran’s labor news agency on Sunday, the deputy head of the Iranian Pharmaceutical Importers Association, Mojtaba Bourbour, said about 80 to 90 percent of the needed raw materials are imported from China and India. He added that some medicines are imported from China but sold as made in Iran.

Noting that there is no precise data on the amount of the imports of drugs packaged abroad, Bourbour said that unofficial figures indicate a $400 million dollar decrease to about $700 million since last year.

He added that most of Iran’s imports of packaged medicines are from the United States and European countries, followed by India and Turkey.

He also criticized the government’s policies that led to the decrease in imports, warning that medication prices may rise dramatically in the coming months as a result ofrestrictions by the health ministry and not foreign sanctions.

Also on Sunday, Iran’s Health Minister Bahram Eynollahi talked of further restrictions on imports of medicine and pharmaceutical products, while the Food and Drug Administration announced a ban on the imports of COVID-19 vaccines.

Eynollahi urged people to trust drugs made in Iran and warned Iranian doctors against prescribing foreign brands of medicine.