Kazakhstan spends USD 1 bln for drug importation

Kazakhstan spent 1.06 billion US dollars for importing drugs manufactured abroad in January - June this year. It is the biggest volume in the first half of the year since at least 2019, Kazinform News Agency quotes the Telegram Channel of the First Credit Bureau.

The delivery costs nominally grew by 56% year on year. The last surge was recorded two years ago up to 39%.

Volumes of imports also broke a record reaching 18,900 tons which is 38% more compared to the same period of 2023.

Kazakhstan imports pharmaceuticals from many countries. It imports primarily from Germany with 16% (173.3 million US dollars), India – 9% (93.4 million US dollars), Italy – 7% (74.1 million US dollars), and Russia – 6% (58 million US dollars).

Notably, Russia makes 27% of the cumulative net weight of deliveries up to 5,200 tons.

For the past six months, Kazakhstan manufactured medicine worth 87.3 billion tenge (194.4 million US dollars).