A Paris-based intergovernmental organization has scandalously turned down a petition against a Swedish pharma company lodged on behalf of Iranians who suffer from a potentially fatal skin disease.
The petition was submitted earlier this year by the lawyer, who represents the patients afflicted with the EB.
The petition had protested the submission of Mölnlycke, a Sweden-headquartered internationally active supplier of medical devices, to the sanctions, which has caused the company to withhold the bandages that are needed by those suffering from the skin condition.
The petition was turned down by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), of which Sweden is a member, Iranian media outlets reported on Wednesday.
It was tossed out by OECD’s National Contact Point, a mechanism in the member states that supervises multinational enterprises that are headquartered in those states.
The Iranian EB patients have severely suffered the lack of medicine due to Washington’s harsh sanctions against Tehran.
According to the EB Foundation of Iran, the adverse impacts of the sanctions, which are part of the US’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran, are deepening the wounds of EB patients and need to be remedied immediately.
The US launched the so-called maximum pressure campaign of sanctions against Iran in 2018, after unilaterally exiting the 2015 nuclear deal.
The sanctions have restricted the financial channels necessary to pay for basic goods and medicine, undermining supply chains by limiting the number of suppliers willing to facilitate sales of humanitarian goods to the country.
Iran has repeatedly denounced the sanctions as an act of “economic war”, “economic terrorism”, and “medical terrorism”.
There are hundreds of EB patients suffering from the disease in Iran. So far, more than a dozen Iranians have died of the disease in the absence of the needed medical supplies. Many of those suffering from the disease have lost their lives due to a lack of essential medical equipment while others have suffered due to severe physical injuries, including amputation.