The medicine market in Mexico grows 29%

It was announced that in times of pandemic, the national pharmaceutical market registered growth in demand with peaks of up to 28 percent globally, with an increase in the production of generic drugs, whose laboratories foresee an expansion towards Central and South American nations for the years to come, commented the president of the National Union of Pharmacy Entrepreneurs (UNEFARM), Juvenal Becerra Orozco.

He stressed that with the pandemic, there is a whole reorientation in the dynamics of the market not only at the country level but at the international level, where the demand for some supplies and medicines grew, but others registered contractions because people stopped going out or treat conditions other than Covid.

He indicated that the need to obtain medicines for chronic-degenerative diseases and care against Covid generated the emergence of more irregular sites on the Internet and places with illegal sale of drugs with which in 2021, it is estimated that the irregular market reaches 28 billion pesos, which include expired, counterfeit and stolen medicines, in addition to supplies such as face masks or antibacterial gels without the respective certifications.

“In the context of the pandemic, Mexico presented various challenges, including the environment of irregular sales, which rose by up to 20 percent during 2021, mainly through websites and social networks, which were derived from the growing need of the population to access medicines,” he said.

The pharmaceutical sector encourages the public to approach fully verified websites and physical establishments that comply with the guidelines requested by the health authorities to guarantee that fully certified medicines are purchased and that they comply with official standards.

He recalled that about 55 percent of the supplies required by the national pharmaceutical industry are imported, representing just over 100 billion pesos a year in imports of pharmaceutical products and active ingredients. The leading suppliers are the United States, Germany, France, Belgium, Switzerland, India, and China.

Likewise, Becerra Orozco highlighted the growth of the Mexican generic medicine, which in 2021 registered an increase in production capacity, with a generation volume of around 4.2 billion pieces, with an expansion capacity of up to 5.7 billion pieces per year. By the end of 2022.

In this sense, the leader of UNEFARM commented that with the pandemic, there was also an increase in the opening of new pharmacies, which in the case of the independent sector reported spacing of around 3 thousand new branches, which in the country there are about 38 thousand pharmacies.