Press TV - Iranian authorities say some $50 million has been saved through a new scheme for production at home of 30 medicines that used to be imported into the country from abroad.

Iran’s minister of labor and social security unveiled the batch of new home-made drugs in ceremony in the capital Tehran on Tuesday.

Mohammad Shariatmadari, whose MCLS ministry oversees a conglomerate of industries, including pharmaceutical companies, said that the drugs are part of a large batch of goods, including medical items, whose imports into Iran have been banned to help boost the domestic industries.

The Tamin Pharmaceutical Investment Company (TPCO), which unveiled the 30 new homemade drugs on Tuesday, is responsible for some 30 percent of Iran’s pharmaceutical production and carries out around a third of the country’s medicine distribution.

Shariatmadari said the TPCO has previously helped save over $3 billion in hard currency that was once used in Iran to import treatments for patients suffering multiple sclerosis (MS).

Unveiling new home-made drugs in Iran comes as the country is celebrating its growing use of domestic medical products and equipment to fight a new coronavirus pandemic.

International organizations and governments have hailed Iran’s home-grown effort to fight COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, as the United States keep refusing to ease its economic sanctions on the country despite wide-spread calls that the bans are hampering Tehran’s access to drugs and vital medical equipment.

COVID-19 has infected more than 62,500 people in Iran since the outbreak of the disease started in the country on February 19. More than 27,000 patients have recovered while nearly 3,900 have died, according to figures provided by the Iranian health ministry on Tuesday.