Parviz Sadeghi is only 49 years old but looks like 70 because of wrinkle eyes and sunken cheeks due to lack of medication to treat diabetes.

After six hours of waiting, Sadeghi exhaustedly emerged from a pharmacy in the capital Tehran with insulin in hand, which became increasingly scarce due to US sanctions.

"I have had diabetes for almost 10 years," said the unemployed male worker, adding that he lived in Karaj, about an hour's drive from Tehran. "Before, you could go to any pharmacy and they would sell it to you, but now you have to go to 1,000 pharmacies to buy it," Sadeghi lamented after a week of going from place to place.

Iranians faced a shortage of medicines even before the outbreak of the Covid-19 epidemic in the central city of Qom, which has caused 61 people to be infected with nCoV, of which 12 have died, and led to panic. disorder due to lack of masks.

Shortages of medical supplies came after the United States withdrew from the nuclear deal and re-imposed sanctions on Iran in 2018. Washington exempted sanctions on humanitarian goods, especially medicines and supplies. health, but banks do not dare to make international purchases with Iran for fear of violating the embargo. This makes medicine in Iran even more scarce and pushes prices up.

"I bought insulin about 3 years ago for 17,000 toman (more than a dollar), but now it costs up to 50,500 toman," Sadeghi said. "Everything is getting more expensive. Insurance pays this. That's why I went to thousands of pharmacies last Saturday to buy them. They finally accepted it but it took a lot of time." and you have to go a lot of places ".

At times when the drug could not be found, Sadeghi had to "temporarily borrow" insulin from other patients to survive. He struggled to find needles and syringes at drugstores.

"Recently, they started to force us to pay for the injection money," Sadeghi said.

Iranian Ministry of Health spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said the country "is now able to produce more than 97% of the required medicine".

"We import only 3% of the current drugs, which are obviously new and high technology, are used in limited doses and local production is not feasible," he said. However, Jahanpour admitted that this year, Iran was struggling to import "rare and special medicines".

Located in central Tehran, the 13 Aban pharmacy attracts a lot of patients patiently queuing for hours to buy medicine for rare diseases. 13 Aban and other pharmacies in Tehran partner with a government-run insurance company.

Mohammad Aminian, 73, needs insulin for his diabetic wife. He said US sanctions made it difficult for him to buy drugs.

"The government is trying to get things working, even though they have their own problems," he said. "We will be happy if they negotiate with the US".

Sadeghi, meanwhile, blames the Iranian government. "They are incapable of managing everything. Some people don't have insurance, they have to buy for heavenly prices. They have to choose between paying or dying," he said.

In addition to diabetes, cancer patients and hereditary hemolytic anemia are the ones most affected by the lack of medication. Shahrzad Shahbani, owner of a pharmacy in Tehran, pointed out another serious problem is the lack of medication for people with mental illness.

"A patient who is prescribed 200 pills can only buy 100 or even 20 pills and the condition is even more common," she said.

Mohammed, a veteran in his 50s, suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. He uses a locally made drug, but sometimes his stomach hurts and burns.

The drugstore owner Shahbani concurs with Mohammed's opinion, saying the quality of the medicine produced by each company is different. According to her, many people with Parkinson's disease sometimes have to illegally import foreign medicines through Turkey.

Switzerland has set up a new financial channel to support humanitarian trade with Iran, but it doesn't make much difference. Meanwhile, some pharmacies continue to scream black market prices for Iranians who have been struggling due to recession and plunging local currency values.