The delivery and manufacture of vital medical supplies in Iran is being impeded by bilateral sanctions on the country's economy, imposed to force Iran to comply with international rules on nuclear programmes. This situation is causing a humanitarian disaster and contravenes the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Medicines are not themselves subject to sanctions, but the licensing, purchase and shipment of imported medicines have all been hit. This, combined with the potential threat of sanctions by international pharmaceutical companies and banks, has led to a shortage of specific drugs and medical facilities in Iran over the past few months, increasing drug prices by 50% and affecting more than 6 million chronically ill patients.

Experience in Iraq, Cuba, Libya and the former Yugoslavia indicates that sanctions seldom meet their political objectives. But they have caused large-scale humanitarian disasters in those countries (see, for example, M. M. Ali and I. H. Shah Lancet 355, 1851–1857; 2000).

The Iranian authorities must take immediate action to block the effect of sanctions on the supply of medicines and of materials for hospitals and laboratories.

The international community needs to establish criteria for guaranteeing that medical products will always be exempt from sanctions.