Financial Tribune - As many as 649 Iranian expatriate scientists have returned to the country and carried on with their studies and careers over the past two years, said Ali Morteza Birang, an official with the Science and Technology Vice Presidency. “Seventeen startups have been launched by these scientists-entrepreneurs,” he was quoted as saying by ILNA. The International Monetary Fund claimed in January 2006 that Iran ranks highest in brain drain among 91 developing and developed countries, with an estimated 150,000 to 180,000 educated people immigrating annually.