Back in September, we reported on industry criticism of the list published by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) of medical devices eligible for export to Iran without a license for certain glaring omissions, namely, infant warmers used in maternity units and neo-natal intensive care devices. This seemed ironic given that certain contraceptive devices were on the list, but critical infant care items were not.

Well, OFAC just updated the list to add a number of devices eligible for unlicensed exports to Iran, including “infant radiant warmer and parts and accessories … [and] [n]eonatal equipment (phototherapy, nasal CPAP, etc. and all components).” Whether or not OFAC listened to what we had to say or not, it clearly listened to industry and did the right thing.

There are a substantial number of additions to the new list, too many to detail here, but I noticed certain changes of particular interest. The category of radiology equipment was expanded from a single item (medical ultrasound equipment) to pretty much the full array of radiology equipment: MRIs, X-ray machines, x-ray film, contrasting agents, mammography machines, and tomography scanners.

Also on the list, and it’s hard to understand why this took so long, are hearing aids. It seems to me that we were in no position to say that Iran was not listening to our arguments on nuclear proliferation at the same time we were restricting the export of hearing aids to the Iranians.

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