10 Countries that Export the Most Drugs in the World

Wondering which are the 10 countries that export the most drugs in the world? Let’s check them out!

Drugs have played an important role in the development of humanity, perhaps much more important than most people are aware of, or are willing to admit. In general terms, a drug is any substance that will cause a physiological change in the body when consumed, inhaled, injected or absorbed by the body by any possible mean, which makes them a very useful tool for medicinal purposes. In fact, most of the today’s modern medicine is based on drug therapy, as one of its main practices; and pharmaceutical expenditure takes part of a large portion of our monthly expenses.

wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock.com

According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, the US tops the list for having the highest pharmaceutical expenditure per capita, followed by Japan, Greece, and Canada.

But, of course, drug consumption doesn’t end at the hospital’s doorstep. Drugs are part of our everyday life, and their effects often help us in our daily routines, as are the cases of coffee, alcohol, cigarettes, or any other grocery shop item that contains substances that can alter our bodies and, in many cases, our minds.

That leads us to the third most common use of drugs, aside from medicinal and daily: recreational. The recreational use of drugs has been around us since the first civilizations discovered that plants and herbs could have an altering effect on our consciousness. As of today, most recreational drugs are prohibited by law in many countries, so, even though illegal drug production and export are part of a multimillion dollar industry, the fact that it runs in a black market makes it impossible to measure beyond estimation. That’s why we’re focusing this article on the legal drug export intended for medicinal use, since coffee, alcohol, and tobacco production are considered to be among other industries than the pharmaceutical industry.

The manufacturing and exporting of pharmaceutical products is a very complex process that is subject to many laws and regulations, thus limiting its mass production to certain countries, as it’s the case with many industries, including the car producing industry, as you can see in our previous article on the 10 countries that export the most cars in the world.

Since pharmaceutical products vary a lot in size, weight, and potency, according to its compounds, we chose to make our list based on each country’s yearly exported value Data was gathered from the Trade Map provided by the International Trade Centre, an international institute that grants information on trade values for most worldwide marketed products.

Eager to see which country tops the list? Keep reading to find out!