A plan on domestic production of 135 medicines is on the agenda, which will save up to $570 million per year, Mostafa Qane’ei, secretary of the Vice Presidency for Science and Technology for biotechnology development, has said.

“We have set a goal to reduce medicine imports by one billion dollars [per year],” he added.

According to the plan, one year after the production of 135 pharmaceutical products, $160 million in savings will be achieved, he noted.

Production of 44 out of the 135 products has started, of which seven are biological medicines and 37 are pharmaceutical raw materials, he explained.

According to Amir Hossein Mo’eini Zandi, vice president of the union of medicine importers, $1.373 billion was allocated to pharmaceutical companies for medicine imports in the past Iranian calendar year (ended March 20, 2019). / T.T/

The director general of Agriculture Ministry for Intl. Affairs said that Iran will hold Food Expo in Sulaymaniyah of Iraq on April 11-21, 2020.

According to the information received from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it was agreed to hold Iran International Food Expo in Sulaymaniyah of Iraq in the beginning of coming year (to start March 21, 2020).

This expo will be held in cooperation with an Iraqi company and Iraq’s Commercial Services Company. / MNA/

Iranian director Behzad Sheikh has dedicated his latest documentary “Aqil” to Quds Force commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani and the deputy commander of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces (PMU), Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, who were assassinated in a U.S. airstrike in Baghdad on Friday.

The documentary had its premiere during the 10th Ammar Popular Film Festival in Tehran on Tuesday.

It tells the story of a young Iranian man name Aqil whose father asked in his will for one of his rings to be donated to the holy shrine of Imam Hussein (AS) in the Iraqi city of Karbala.

Aqil decides to take the ring to Karbala during the Arbaeen march, in which Iranians and Shia Muslims from other countries embark on a journey to Karbala to observe the day of Arbaeen, which marks the end of the 40-day mourning period following the martyrdom of the Imam and his loyal companions on Ashura.

“If we had not had great men such as martyrs Soleimani and Abu Mahdi, Iranians would never see great Shia gatherings such as the Arbaeen march, and consequently, the documentary would never have been made,” the film crew said in a statement before the screening of “Aqil”.

Amir-Hassan Khajavi is the producer of the documentary, which was filmed in Iran and Iraq.

The 10th Ammar Popular Film Festival will come to an end tonight. / T.T/

Nine plans are contending for the Vista Contemporary Art Prize during the third edition of the annual award established by Tehran’s Vista Gallery to honor the best artistic idea from young Iranian artists.

One of the plans has been provided by Hamidreza Azad to organize an installation exhibition, in which a horn-shaped figure produces voices, causing visitors to refer to history in a reflective way.

In another plan, Sanahin Babajanian will create solids representing geometrical motifs from Iranian architecture and paintings of Christian monuments.

In a plan for an installation, Iman Jesmi represents some perfect characters of the sounds being produced by objects and visitors’ reactions to them.

Hufer Haqiqi displays some imaginary landscapes of Tehran in a delicate process in his plan.

In her plan, Ulduz Nabizadeh develops new concepts and functions of ceramics.

Shana Abdollahian and Ehsan Alizadeh are jointly competing with a single plan.

Plans by Kolsum Salehi, Aisa Rashid and Samira Rohbani have been selected to compete for the prize.

The winner will be honored with a check worth 300 million rials (about $7,200) during a special ceremony at the gallery on Friday. The organizers also will help the winner accomplish his/her new project in an exhibition at the gallery./T.T/

The medicine of Edaravone Alsava for ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) patients was unveiled on Sunday morning in the presence of Iran’s Vice President for Science and Technology.

The medicine for patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) was unveiled in the form of Edaravone injection vials by a knowledge-based company in the Growth Center of Iran University of Medical Sciences (IUMS).

It is for two months that the medicine has hit the domestic consumer market and about 50 patients have used it.

Edaravone Injection Vial is a thick product which is prescribed for patients with ALS.

ALS disease causes destruction of mobile cells in the spinal cord and is considered as a type of degenerative disease.

Statistics showed that 10 and 90 percent of patients with ALS have either been genetically or diagnosed with the disease respectively.

According to neurologists, the ALS disease is a degenerative disease that cannot be cured. /MNA/

The US assassination of IRGC’s Quds Force commander, Lt. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, on Trump’s order has sparked wide criticism amid American celebrities.

“Dear #Iran, The USA has disrespected your country, your flag, your people. 52% of us humbly apologize. We want peace with your nation. We are being held hostage by a terrorist regime. We do not know how to escape. Please do not kill us. #Soleimani,” wrote American actress, activist, and author Rose McGowan in a tweet.

Her tweet received backlash from several accounts, prompting her to add in another tweet that she was scared of the prospect of an impending war.

Kathleen Mary Griffin, an American comedian and actress, also took to Twitter to voice her opposition to the US move by saying “Donald Trump has put every American, all over the world, in grave danger by this incredibly ignorant and thoughtless act of war.”

American documentary filmmaker and author Michael Moore also slammed Trump for his airstrike, saying that Americans are being led into an unwitting war with Iran.

The United States terrorist forces assassinated Lt. General Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the second-in-command of Iraq’s pro-government Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) — better known as Hashd al-Sha’abi — in an airstrike at Baghdad’s international airport early on Friday. The Pentagon said in a statement that US President Donald Trump had ordered the attack.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump claimed in a Saturday tweet that his military would hit “very important” targets related to Iran and the “Iranian culture” in case of retaliatory action against the US for the assassination of the senior Iranian military commander.

The threat came under severe backlash for its blatant nature of pertaining to a war crime, which targets civilization and cultural monuments instead of military sites. /MNA/

A script has remained from General Soleimani that has been written hours before his martyrdom.

The spiritual text has been written before his flight’s departure from Damascus to Baghdad on Thursday. He had left the paper in his residing room.

“O God! don’t leave me alone

O God! Accept me

O God! I love meeting You

The same meeting which made Moses unable to stand and breathe

O God! Accept me

‘All the praises and thanks be to God who is the Lord of the universe’

O God! Accept me purified.”

Lt. General Soleimani was assassinated on Friday by US terrorist forces at Baghdad airport. Iran has vowed to take a hard revenge on Washington for this act of terror. /MNA/

The director of Art Bureau’s Visual Arts Office, Masud Shojaei-Tabatabai, said on Sunday that a number of Iranian artists are creating artworks of commander Qassem Soleimani in a project initiated by the organization.

About 30 painters, graphic designers and sculptors, including Mehdi Farrokhi, Ahmad Qolizadeh, Kamiar Sadeqi, Shahram Shirzadi, Abbas Ganji, Nasser Seifi and Malek-Dadyar Garusian, are collaborating on the project.

Painter Hassan Ruholamin’s painting “The Apocalyptic Companion of Aba Abdillah”, which depicts Soleimani’s remains embraced by Imam Hussein (AS), the third Imam of the Shias, is one of the artworks created for the project.

An image of the artwork was published on Friday on khamenei.ir, the official website of Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.

The artworks being created for the project are scheduled to be showcased in exhibitions, which will be organized across the country in the near future./T.T/

Pahlevani armband, called ‘Bazouband’ in Persian, was awarded to family of Commander of IRGC Quds Force Major General Qassem Soleimani on Sunday.

In the ceremony held in the Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs headquarters, sports minister Masoud Soltanifar awarded the armband to General Qassem Soleimani’s family.

Chief of IRGC’s Sarallah Headquarters Brigadier General Esmaeil Kosari and head of Iran’s National Olympic Committee (NOC) Reza Salehi Amiri were among attendees.

Commander of the IRGC Quds Force Major General Qassem Soleimani was martyred in an airstrike at Baghdad’s international airport on Friday morning.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei declared three days of public mourning in the country.

Iran’s Ministry of Sport had announced that the all competition which are scheduled for Saturday and Sunday were canceled.

General Soleimani was at frontline positions in battles against ISIS in Iraq and Syria.

General Soleimani and Deputy Commander of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces (Hashd al-Shaabi) Abu Mahdi Al-Mohandes, who were separately leaving Baghdad airport in two cars were targeted and assassinated early hours of morning on Friday./ T.T/

A large group of literati came together at Tehran’s Felestin Cinema on Friday evening to commemorate Quds Force Commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, who was martyred in a U.S. airstrike in Baghdad, during a poetry night entitled “Tough Revenge”.

The poetry night was organized on the sidelines of the 10th Ammar Popular Film Festival, which is currently underway in Tehran.

The session was attended by several prominent poets, including Ali-Mohammad Moaddab, Ahmad Babai, Nafiseh Sadat Musavi, Mohammad-Mehdi Sayyar, Milad Erfanpur, Fatemeh Nanizad and Mobin Ardestani as well as cultural officials and the families of the martyrs who lost their lives in the 1980s Iran-Iraq war or in fighting against terrorism.

At the beginning of the session Forugh Monhi, whose three sons were martyred during the war, noted that Iranians are not alone and the U.S. should await their tough revenge.

“General Soleimani trained thousands of soldiers like himself. These soldiers will fight the enemies of Islam, the U.S. and Israel,” she added.

Afterwards, poets recited selections from their works about resistance and fight against the world arrogance.

Established by a number of Iranian revolutionary figures, the Ammar Popular Film Festival has been named after Ammar Yasir, a close companion of Prophet Muhammad (S).

The festival, which opened in Tehran on Wednesday, will come to an end on January 9./T.T/