All tagged medical equipment
◢ With just two weeks until Trump reimposes secondary sanctions on Iran, administration officials are under increasing pressure to prove that the returning sanctions will not adversely impact humanitarian trade. Looking to US Census Bureau export data, a clear pattern emerges—the export of humanitarian goods like food and medicine remains significantly lower than average monthly values registered during the Obama years.
◢ A crisis is looming in Iran’s healthcare sector: patients are reporting shortages in life-saving medicine. The situation is expected to worsen once US sanctions on Iran are reimposed in November. European and US companies that can provide the advanced medicine and equipment needed to treat chronic diseases inside Iran are grappling with how to sustain their operations. New US sanctions will put the health of ordinary Iranians at risk. Europe can take concrete steps to minimize this—steps which also support its ongoing commitment to the nuclear deal.
◢ In the years when Iran was under broad international sanctions, the country saw shortages in key foodstuffs and life-saving medicines. Despite attestations to the contrary, international sanctions hurt the Iranian people in cruel ways. As Iranians prepare for the return of U.S. sanctions, concerning ambiguity in OFAC’s new sanctions guidance may undermine the longstanding exemptions for humanitarian trade and the carve-outs for the Iranian banks which facilitate these sales.
◢ A new crop of entrepreneurs are making Iran into a hub for hardware development, drawing on the country’s deep pool of mechanical and electrical engineering talent.
◢ One such company is Pedasys, which has designed and manufactured a lower-body exoskeleton to allow paraplegic or elderly individuals who are lower-limb disabled to walk. The company is backed by Shenasa, the venture fund of Pasargad Financial Group.
◢ There are approximately 400,000 disabled veterans in Iran, who sustained their injuries during the Iran-Iraq War.
◢ Government agencies like the Social Welfare Organization struggle to meet their needs. Public-Private Partnerships ought to be developed to help address healthcare provision for this important population.