Sattari said in an interview with an Iranian TV that Iran is ranked 12th in the world and first in West Asia in terms of biotechnology, as 9.5 percent of the income of knowledge-based companies and more than 60 percent of their exports are related to biotechnology.
He added that with the coronavirus outbreak, Iran focused on a vital aspect of biotechnology, namely biosecurity and following the COVID-19 outbreak, Iranian researchers and knowledge-based companies have made great strides during a short span of time.
Referring to the domestic production of COVID-19 test kits, Sattari said that some of the knowledge-based companies reached a production capacity of more than 200,000-300,000 diagnostic kits per day.
Currently, some six companies have been approved to produce the kits, and a newly-approved company recently was tasked with the production of 1.5 million kits, he added.
“We have so far sent medical and self-protective equipment to many countries for fighting COVID-19,” Sattari said, adding, there are 30 centers in other countries to follow up on export confirmation, as some knowledge-based products take up to 10 years to receive export license.
“So far, over six medicines have received export confirmation in Russia and are being exported, he noted, adding that, due to the complexities of exporting knowledge-based products, we have prepared plans to support export-oriented startups.
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