A framework for evaluation of pharmaceutical industry development in developing countries: Evidence from Iran

Objectives: The pharmaceutical market is a complex market due to its complicated supply chain and the extent of government regulations in all aspects of the trade lifecycle of drug development. Considering the importance of pharmaceuticals for society and the relevant trend of globalization, managing pharmaceutical industry effectively and efficiently is vital, particularly in developing countries. The present study determines the factors affecting the development of the Iranian pharmaceutical industry based on pharmaceutical mangers� point of view. Methods: In this study, we assessed managers� perspective about the internal and external key factors affecting the development of pharmaceutical industry. Finally, their perspective about the solutions for the development of pharmaceutical industry was assessed. Accordingly, a self-designed questionnaire was sent to 65 managers at Tamin Pharmaceutical Investment Company, of which, 51 questionnaires were answered by the managers. Result: Most managers believed generic scheme reflect negatively on the development of the pharmaceutical industry and that external factors have a great impact on its improvement. They believe that branded generic transition along with supporting regulations, investment in Research and Development, and joint venture with foreign companies will improve the pharmaceutical industry. Conclusion: To sum up, for improving the pharmaceutical industry in the shortest time possible, improvement of technological capabilities and investment in R&D should be considered. © 2016, Innovare Academics Sciences Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved

The structure of the world pharmaceutical market: Prioritizing Iran�s target export markets

Iran�s pharmaceutical products market has faced fluctuations over time. Suitable market selection is necessary for stability of pharmaceutical exports. This study aimed to determine the structure of the world pharmaceutical market and to identify the target of Iranian pharmaceutical export. T do so, concentration ratios and Herfindahl index were used to address the world pharmaceutical market from 2001 to 2012. Also, a composite index was used to identify the target markets of Iran�s pharmaceutical industry. The results showed that the export side of world pharmaceutical trade has shifted to open oligopoly, thereby decreasing the monopolistic power of exporters. The import side, however, follows monopolistic competition. It has been observed that the structure of Iran�s pharmaceutical export is shifting to open oligopoly; though, pharmaceutical importers from Iran have not been stable. Moreover, 27 countries were identified as target markets. Due to significant differences between the current and potential export destinations of Iran�s pharmaceutical products, exporters should choose suitable strategies in order to diversify export markets. Such mechanisms as setting preferential tariffs on the basis of bilateral agreements, following effective advertisment, and paying attention to global consumers�preferences can be used to develop Iran�s pharmaceutical export to target countries. © 2019, Iranian Journal of Pharmaceutical Research. All rights reserved

Circular RNAs in cancer: New insights into functions and implications in ovarian cancer

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are a class of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) which have a circular and closed loop structure. They are ubiquitous, stable, conserved and diverse RNA molecules with a range of activities such as translation and splicing regulation, which are able to interacting with RNA-binding proteins and specially miRNA sponge. The expression patterns of the circRNAs exhibited tissue specificity and also, step and stage specificity. Accumulating evidences approved the critical role of circular RNAs in many cancers such as ovarian cancer. Given that these molecules exert their effects through multiple cellular and molecular mechanisms (i.e., angiogenesis, apoptosis, growth, and metastasis) which are involved in cancer pathogenesis, circular RNAs, in particular, act by controlling cell proliferation in ovarian cancer, so that, it has been shown that the deregulation of these molecules is associated with initiation and progression of ovarian cancer. Therefore, they are attractive molecules which have introduced them as cancer biomarkers. Moreover, they could be used as new therapeutic candidates for developing novel treatment strategies. Here, for first time, we have provided a comprehensive review on the recent knowledge of circular RNAs and their pathological roles in the ovarian cancer. © 2019 The Author(s)

Circular RNAs and gastrointestinal cancers: Epigenetic regulators with a prognostic and therapeutic role

Both environmental and genetic factors are involved in the initiation and development of gastrointestinal cancer. Covalent closed circular RNAs (circRNAs) are produced by a mechanism called �back-splicing� from mRNAs. They are highly stable and show cell and tissue specific expression patterns. Although some functions such as �microRNA sponge� and �RNA binding protein sponge� have been reported for a small number of circRNAs, the function of thousands of other circRNAs is still unknown. Dysregulation of circRNAs has been reported in many GI cancers and are involved in metastasis and invasion. CircRNAs have been reported to be useful as prognostic markers and targets for developing new treatments. We first describe the properties and biogenesis of circRNAs. We then summarize recent reports about circRNA functions, expression status, and their potential to be used as biomarkers in GI cancers including, gastric cancer, colorectal cancer, esophageal cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma, gallbladder cancer and pancreatic cancer. © 2019 Elsevier B.V

Electrochemical-based biosensors for microRNA detection: Nanotechnology comes into view

Nanotechnology plays an undeniable significant role in medical sciences, particularly in the field of biomedicine. Development of several diagnostic procedures in medicine has been possible through the beneficial application of nano-materials, among which electrochemical nano-biosensors can be mentioned. They can be employed to quantify various clinical biomarkers in detection, evaluation, and follow up stages of the illnesses. MicroRNAs, a group of regulatory short RNA fragments, added a new dimension to the management and diagnosis of several diseases. Mature miRNAs are single-stranded RNA molecules approximately 22 nucleotides in length, which regulate a vast range of biological functions from cellular proliferation and death to cancer development and progression. Recently, diagnostic value of miRNAs in various diseases has been demonstrated. There are many traditional methods for detection of miRNAs including northern blotting, quantitative real time PCR (qRT-PCR), microarray technology, nanotechnology-based approaches, and molecular biology tools including miRNA biosensors. In comparison with other techniques, electrochemical nucleic acid biosensor methods exhibit many interesting features, and could play an important role in the future nucleic acid analysis. This review paper provides an overview of some different types of nanotechnology-based biosensors for detection of miRNAs. © 201

Evaluation of Artificial Neural Network for determining distribution pattern of ascid family (Acari: Mesostigmata) in Damghan

In this study, the artificial neural network methods were used to estimate the distribution of ascid family (Acari: Mesostigmata). For this aim, latitude, longitude and elevation from the sea level of 137 points were defined as inputs and output of method was number of species of this family on those points and Perceptron with propagation algorithm was evaluated in artificial neural network method. To evaluate the ability of neural networks used to predict dispersion, statistical comparison of parameters such as variance, statistical distribution and mean of spatial predicted values by neural network and their actual values were used. The results showed that there was no significant difference (p> 0.4) in the training and test phases between the values of the statistical characteristics of variance, the statistical distribution and the mean of real and predicted spatial data of this family by the neural network. It can be concluded that the artificial neural network method was able to predict the dispersion of this family with proper precision by integrating three factors of latitude and longitude and elevation from the sea level. ;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:"B Lotus";mso-bidi-language:FA'>p> 0.4). در مجموع می­توان چنین نتیجه گرفت که روش شبکه عصبی مصنوعی با تلفیق سه عامل طول و عرض جغرافیایی و ارتفاع از سطح دریا، قادر به پیش­بینی پراکندگی این خانواده با دقت مناسب بود

Financing of physical rehabilitation services in Iran: A stakeholder and social network analysis

Background: Inadequate financing is one of the major barriers in securing equitable access to high-quality physical rehabilitation services, without imposing financial hardship. Despite this, no sufficient attention has been paid to physical rehabilitation services and no specific financial resources have been allocated to such services in many countries including Iran. Owing to the fact that effective decision- and policy-making requires identifying possible stakeholders and actors and their characteristics, in the current study a stakeholder analysis and also a social network analysis (SNA) was conducted to identify the potential stakeholders and also their characteristics involved in physical rehabilitation financing (PRF)-related policies in Iran. Methods: The present study was performed in two phases. Firstly, semi-structured interviews and relevant document review were conducted to identify the stakeholders. Then, the position, power, interest, and influence of each stakeholder were determined using a web-based questionnaire. Secondly, SNA approach was utilized to map and visualize the interactions among stakeholders. Results: The findings showed that there are different stakeholders in PRF-related decision- and policy-making processes in Iran. In addition, the position, power, interest, and influence level of the identified stakeholders were varied. Moreover, although some stakeholders, like the Ministry of Health and the parliament have the highest level of power and position, they lack sufficient interest to participate in PRF-policies. Furthermore, SNA demonstrated that social network density was low, which indicates the lack of proper collaboration and interaction among the stakeholders. Conclusion: As many powerful and influential stakeholders had low interest levels to warrant participate in the FPR-related decision- and policy-making processes in Iran, employing careful and effective strategies, that is ongoing negotiations, receiving advocacy, and making senior managers and policy-makers aware can be helpful. © 2020 The Author(s)

Association between PM2.5 and risk of hospitalization for myocardial infarction: A systematic review and a meta-analysis

Background: It is generally assumed that there have been mixed results in the literature regarding the association between ambient particulate matter (PM) and myocardial infarction (MI). The aim of this meta-analysis was to explore the rate of short-term exposure PM with aerodynamic diameters �2.5 μm (PM2.5) and examine its potential effect(s) on the risk of MI. Methods: A systematic search was conducted on databases like PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Embase with components: "air pollution" and "myocardial infarction". The summary relative risk (RR) and 95 confidence intervals (95CI) were also calculated to assess the association between the PM2.5 and MI. Results: Twenty-six published studies were ultimately identified as eligible candidates for the meta-analysis of MI until Jun 1, 2018. The results illustrated that a 10-μg/m 3 increase in PM2.5 was associated with the risk of MI (RR = 1.02; 95 CI 1.01-1.03; P � 0.0001). The heterogeneity of the studies was assessed through a random-effects model with p < 0.0001 and the I2 was 69.52, indicating a moderate degree of heterogeneity. We also conducted subgroup analyses including study quality, study design, and study period. Accordingly, it was found that subgroups time series study design and high study period could substantially decrease heterogeneity (I2 = 41.61, 41.78). Conclusions: This meta-analysis indicated that exposure-response between PM2.5 and MI. It is vital decision makers implement effective strategies to help improve air pollution, especially in developing countries or prevent exposure to PM2.5 to protect human health. © 2020 The Author(s)

Physical rehabilitation financing in Iran: a policy analysis using Kingdon�s multiple streams

Background: Adequate financing is a crucial function, securing that physical rehabilitation services (i.e., physiotherapy, occupational therapy, prosthetics and orthotics) are available with no financial hardship. Like many other countries, despite the adoption of various policies and strategies in recent decades, Iran enjoys no desirable physical rehabilitation financing (PRF). Accordingly, this qualitative study aimed to explore the PRF-related strategies and issues as well as their impacts on relevant policies in Iran. Methods: An analysis of PRF-related policies was conducted in Iran using semi-structured interviews and policy documents review. Purposive and snowball sampling techniques were employed to select key informants, including health-policy makers, civil society, rehabilitation-policy makers, university professors, and practitioners. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the collected data. The analysis was framed within Kingdon�s multiple streams. Results: The hindering factors for desirable financing were weak insurance coverage, lack of sustainable financial resources, fragmented financing, lack of split between provider and financer, high-cost of physical rehabilitation services, low engagement of relevant experts in policy-making processes, and corrupt activities. In the policy stream, the following factors were highlighted: involvement of sustainable financial resources, the use of external revenue sources, allocated resources� earmarking, the integration of the current funds to have better pooling, the use of incentive and timely payment mechanisms, the implementation of strategic purchasing principals, and the employment of effective rationing strategies. Moreover, parliament support, changes in administrations, international effects, pressures from interest campaigns and NGOs, and international sanctions were found as factors affecting the politics stream. Conclusion: The study findings revealed that a variety of national and international factors affect PRF-related issues in Iran. The recently enacted laws indicate that the PRF policies have already been on the national health political agenda. The study reflected the multifaceted nature of barriers to optimal PRF in Iran. © 2021, The Author(s)

Physical rehabilitation in Iran after international sanctions: Explored findings from a qualitative study

Background: Although the main aims of sanctions are the political and economic pressures on governments, literature has demonstrated the harsh effects of sanctions on the general public, especially on the patients, poor and disabled people. Since the international sanctions regime negatively affected almost all dimensions of Iran's health sector, this qualitative study was conducted to investigate the situation of the physical rehabilitation sector after these sanctions. Methods: This qualitative study was conducted from January 2019 to June 2019 in Iran using Skype, telephone, and face-to-face in-depth semi-structured interviews. Purposive and snowball sampling approaches were used to identify the participants. Also, framework analysis approach was applied to analyze the collected data. Results: In total, 38 individuals including health policy-maker, faculty member, rehabilitation expert, Physiotherapist, Occupational therapist, and Orthotist/Prosthetist, were involved in the study. Based on our findings, a number of challenges facing the Iranian physical rehabilitation sector during the international sanctions period included: 1) socioeconomic challenges (inadequate funding, rising inflation rate, high unemployment rate, catastrophic expenditures, and inappropriate employment status of practitioners); 2) education challenges (decreased international collaboration and shortage of training devices and materials); 3) international challenges (rising issues in accessing services for patients from neighborhood countries); and 4) service delivery challenges (shortage of raw materials for producing the orthoses and prostheses, hardening of the importing the needed equipment, inappropriate infrastructures, and impossibility to use external assistance). Conclusion: After international sanctions, the Iranian physical rehabilitation sector has faced considerable multifaceted challenges. Therefore, the international community must be aware of the situation and be concerned about the irreparable consequences. © 2020 The Author(s)