Mounting unpaid claims push pharmacies toward bankruptcy, while experts warn of deepening social inequality and economic instability
A new report from Ham-Mihan reveals the alarming depth of Iran’s pharmacy crisis as the Social Security Organization (SSO) prepares to sell bonds on the stock market simply to pay its long-overdue debts to pharmacies—debts that have pushed the sector to the brink of collapse.
According to economic reporter Roghieh Nedaei, Iran’s community pharmacies have reached a near-bankrupt state, struggling for years with chronic non-payment by the SSO. Beginning this week, the organization plans to finance its debts not through budgetary allocation or structural reform, but through the issuance of bonds—a move that economists describe as a short-term patch with long-term consequences.
The crisis has grown so severe that pharmacies across the country have, in recent weeks, temporarily shut down in protest over unpaid claims. Current assessments show that the SSO owes 1,200 billion tomans in outpatient prescription reimbursements—equivalent to approximately 7 trillion tomans over seven months. When hospital inpatient claims are added, the total debt becomes far larger, representing an unsustainable burden that has cracked the foundations of the drug-supply chain.
Kaveh Kazemian, board member of the Tehran Pharmacists Association, stressed that the sector is not seeking confrontation but trying to prevent a complete breakdown in drug availability.
He warned that any disruption to the pharmaceutical supply chain directly threatens drug security and the mental stability of society, adding that pharmacies must operate within the law even when faced with unlawful delays in payment.
Beyond the immediate medical consequences, experts warn of far-reaching socio-economic fallout.
Capital market analyst Bahman Fallah described the bond-financing plan as a symptom of a much deeper crisis. The pharmacy sector’s collapse, he argues, reflects broader structural failures that are rapidly eroding Iran’s middle class. As prolonged inflation combines with high interest rates, income groups polarize: most households fall into low-income brackets while a small minority occupies the highest decile.
Fallah warned that this pattern is pushing Iran toward a two-tier society, with falling consumption, widening inequality, and escalating instability. If policymakers continue to avoid meaningful reform, he said, Iran will eventually turn to hyperinflation as an artificial escape mechanism—a temporary shock that may shrink state debts on paper but will impose devastating human and social costs.
The pharmacy debt crisis now stands as a stark illustration of a regime unable to meet its most basic obligations: ensuring access to essential medicine, maintaining economic stability, and protecting the social fabric from collapse.
