ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Iraq is set to open the largest facility specializing in the production of cancer drugs at subsidized prices in the capital Baghdad next month, an advisor to the prime minister said Wednesday. 

“As part of the decisions to encourage and develop the private sector, Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani will inaugurate the largest factory in the region in terms of production capacity at the beginning of next month,” Hamoudi al-Lami, industry and development advisor to Sudani, told the state al-Sabah newspaper. 

The initiative comes as part of Baghdad’s recent drive to “provide medicines, especially cancer medicines that are expensive” at subsidized prices for citizens, Lami noted. 

It is part of a broader program dubbed the “Localization of Pharmaceutical Industries,” with Lami saying that the factory, in Baghdad's Abu Ghraib district, will obtain pharmaceutical formulations from Italian companies. 

“The [drug prices] will be 50 percent lower than imported drugs,” the advisor asserted. “The coming period will also witness an increase in the number of cancer drugs, and cover the needs of hospitals for these drugs.” 

Cancer is the leading cause of death worldwide, as health establishments struggle to find treatments and develop better diagnostics. 

Key factors contributing to the uptick in cancer cases in both Iraq and the Kurdistan Region are environmental pollution and lifestyle issues, with early diagnosis of the disease widely advised to prevent the condition from reaching critical stages. 

In September 2024, Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani laid the foundation for a cancer hospital in Erbil, considered the largest across Iraq. It is set to be completed in 2026.