
Needless to say, the pharmaceutical industry in Mexico accounts for a significant share of the country’s economy, bringing in almost 70 billion Mexican pesos in 2018. With a production value of more than 144 billion Mexican pesos that same year, the pharmaceutical market employed nearly 50 thousand people in total. Furthermore, Mexico was home to 135 manufacturing establishments for pharmaceutical products in 2017 and 2018 consecutively.
Despite its significant role in the national economy, the pharmaceutical industry in this North American country relies mostly on imports. With a trade balance of -3.11 billion U.S. dollars in 2018, the value of imports totaled 4.7 billion U.S. dollars. Together, the United States and Germany accounted for nearly half of the total imports. Additionally, medications consisting of mixed or unmixed products for therapeutic or prophylactic uses gathered almost two thirds of this value. Meanwhile, although smaller in size, pharmaceutical exports in Mexico generated more than 1.5 billion U.S. dollars in 2018.
Finally, from a consumer perspective, Mexico ranks among the Latin American nations with the highest private healthcare spending, with out-of-pocket expenses accounting for more than 41 percent of total spending in 2017. Thus, it is not surprising that the consumption value of drugs and medicines is expected to increase more than 30 percent by 2022, from approximately 14 billion U.S. dollars reported in 2018. According to a recent survey, generic drugs and similar products made up nearly 90 percent of the country’s pharmaceutical spending. This is not surprising, given the high prices of patented pharmaceuticals products.