Iran's Membership in the International Regulatory Cooperation for Herbal Medicines, WHO-IRCH

Dr. Arman Zargaran, an assistant professor at the Department of Traditional Pharmacy, and the Public Relations Advisor of the TUMS Vice Chancellor for Global Strategies and International Affairs, announced the news in an interview: “Dr. Zhang Qi, the head of the Traditional, Complementary and Integrative Medicine Unit, sent us a letter on Oct 23th, 2020 announcing the WHO agreement with joining Iran in the WHO-IRCH network, and appointing me as the representative of Iran in the network.” He added: "In this letter, the representative of Iran has been invited to attend the upcoming meeting in November of this year, so that the Iran's membership can be officially announced."

Dr. Zargaran also stated: "Considering the efforts of the World Health Organization in promoting the position of traditional medicine in member countries during the past decades, with careful planning and expansion of international interactions, the Iranian traditional medicine system has made great achievements in the direction of globalization of Iranian medicine and its structured explanation in the health system from an international perspective.”

Noting that the issuance of a license by the World Health Organization’s publication benchmarks for Iranian medicine and the accepting Iran as the 36th official member of the WHO-IRCH are examples of the achievements, Dr. Zargaran emphasized that obtaining these international positions will be effective in shaping Iran's role in the field of traditional medicine in the international community and especially in the WHO.

Dr. Zargaran concluded by stating that the WHO’s International Regulatory Cooperation for Herbal Medicines (WHO-IRCH) has been established since 2006 as a global network with the presence of officials overseeing the laws and regulations related to medicinal plants and aims to protect and promote public health and safety using optimized laws for medicinal plants and herbal medicines.