(Finance) – In 2023, the European Union exports of medicines and pharmaceutical products to countries outside the EU decreased by -3.5% compared to 2022. On the other hand, the imports of the EU increased by 6.1% in 2023. Eurostat communicates this in a report on the topic.
In 2023, exports reached 277 billion euros, while imports stood at 119 billion euros. Consequently, the trade surplus of the EU in the medicines and pharmaceuticals sector amounted to 158 billion euros, marking the second highest figure on record, after the peak in 2022 of 174 billion euros.
In 2023, Germany was the largest exporter non-EU EU (62 billion euros), followed by Belgium (44 billion euros) and Ireland (37 billion euros), all three recording decreases compared to 2022.
THE major importers non-EU of medicines and pharmaceutical products were Belgium (26 billion euros), followed by Germany (20 billion euros) and the Netherlands (16 billion euros).
There main destination of non-EU exports of medicines and pharmaceutical products in 2023 were the United States, accounting for a third (33.2%; 92 billion euros) of these exports, followed by Switzerland (15.5%; 43 billion euros ) and China (7.7%; 21 billion euros).
The imports of products into the EU came mainly from the United States, which accounted for 39.5% of all EU imports of these products, then from Switzerland (32.3%) and the United Kingdom (6.9%).