Results from a New Study on Pharmaceuticals in Mexico

Mexicans lining up to get health care through Seguro Popular

Fast Market Research, a company that specializes in market research, just released a new report on pharmaceuticals in Mexico. I was interested on it, but it costs $350 dollars, so I'm just going to comment on the findings on the report as reported by news articles. If you want to buy the report, you can do so here.

- Mexico's pharmaceutical market is worth $14.4 billion. This value is ex-factory, which means it doesn't include transportation or distribution from the factory to the sellers.

-The value of the pharmaceutical market doesn't include beauty and care products, like vitamins or nutritional supplements. It doesn't include medicine for pets or animals. However, it does seem to include generics.

-Mexico is the second largest pharmaceutical market in Latin America, after Brazil. This comes as no surprise. Brazil and Mexico are by far the most populous and countries in Latin America and their economies are also the biggest by far.

-A big factor in the growth of the market is the expansion of the Seguro Popular program, which gave universal care for a range of services that weren't available before.

-The forecast is for the rate growth of the market to go down, but not stop. It predicts that by 2018, the size of the market will be 19.8 billion.

Of course, the report doesn't take into account all the traditional remedies that Mexicans have been using for centuries. For many families, these are still the main source of health care they get because they can't afford better services, the public health care centers are far from where they live, or they simply like to keep their traditions.

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Robert Ervin is a freelancer who writes about healthcare, medical tourism, and living in Mexico.

If you're considering traveling to Mexico for healthcare or retiring in Mexico, you may want to get yourself a copy of The English's Speaker's Guide to Doctors and Hospitals in Mexico, in order to find a good doctor or hospital in the main towns and cities of Mexico, or The English Speaker's Guide to Medical Care in Mexico, to understand how the Mexican healthcare system works.