Pharmaceutical Exports by Country 2024

Pharmaceutical products were the number 6 market worldwide in 2021. Worth $806 billion overall, the market is 3.83% of the total world market. Exports grew 20% between 2020 and 2021, most likely due to the world health crisis.

The top exporter of pharmaceuticals was Germany, which exported $115 billion, significantly more than the $76.6 billion it imported. Similarly, Switzerland exported $90.2 billion and imported only $40.2 billion, and Belgium exported $71.1 billion and imported $44 billion. The only country in the top five of exports that doesn't follow this pattern is the United States, which exported $81.6 billion but imported $145 billion. In fact, the United States was the number one country for pharmaceutical imports, importing 18% of the global market share.

The pharmaceutical industry is the sixth-largest market in the world, and has grown substantially over the last two decades. In 2001, the market as a whole was worth $390.2 billion worldwide. This number has more than tripled, and the Industry was worth $1,482 billion dollars in 2022.

While some of the increase can be attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw unprecedented levels of global cooperation, the upward trend has been a constant since 2001. This correlates with the opioid crisis, a health emergency that started with the overprescribing of prescription painkillers. This led to widespread addiction, drug abuse, disablement, and death for large groups of people around the world.

The last several years have been marked by legal battles that showed the damage caused by profit-focused pharmaceutical companies fueling the health crisis to make money. Several settlements have been made recently, and at least one national pharmacy chain in the United States has declared bankruptcy.

Some of the expansion of this market over the last two decades was certainly a result of the popularity of opioids and prescription painkillers. Now that it looks like the courts have tightened supervision and regulation of these drugs, it will be interesting to see how the market grows.