File photo taken on Dec. 13, 2018 shows workers packing pharmaceutical products at the Diamond Pharma factory in the countryside of Damascus, capital of Syria. Despite long years of war and Western sanctions, the pharmaceutical industry in Syria is recovering, covering 90 percent of domestic demands. Local reports said 5,000 pharmacies and 24 pharmaceutical factories stopped service during the war. But the Health Ministry in Syria kept providing facilitation for the factories that are still operating in order to answer the demand of the people. As the situation in the country has become much better over the past year, the number of authorized pharmaceutical factories reached 8,977, which now have a capacity to cover the local market, Habib Abboud, deputy health minister for pharmaceutical affairs, told Xinhua. (Xinhua/Wang Jian)