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5.2 Trade in medical goods

5.2.1 Introduction

The trade classification does not have a category ‘medical goods’, they are spread out over

the system. In this study medical goods are divided up in three main categories:

pharmaceutical products, medical devices and other medical products (see Annex C:

Classification of medical products). Pharmaceutical products are straightforward, medicines in

various forms, category “Medicines in doses” are patient ready packaged medicines e.g. pills

packaged in strips and boxes as sold in pharmacies. Medical devices contains all machine style

medical products ranging from small equipment, orthopaedic implants to large scanning

machines. The other medical products are a more diverse category. The most common

denominator here is that they are mostly consumables and disposables. The major exception

are medical furniture. To get an idea about the relative importance of the three categories

see figure 5.2.

Figure 5.2 - Total medical goods imports of Romania

4,000
3,500
3,000
2,500
2,000
1,500
1,000
500
-
2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

Pharmaceutical products Medical devices Other medical products

Source: Trade Map, unit EUR million

Table 5.1 - Total medical goods imports of Romania

Categrories 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
Pharmaceutical products 2,609 2,576 2,537 2,693 2,907
Medical devices 248 288 400 373 403

Other medical products 79 91 108 114 127
Total 2,936 2,955 3,045 3,181 3,437
Source: Trade Map, unit EUR million

Medical products account for 4.6% of total Romanian imports. It makes it a relatively

important import product, because Romania has relatively little domestic production of

pharmaceuticals. Overall pharmaceutical products are the main component of the Medical

product imports with a share of 84%, medical apparatus account for a share of 12% and other

medical products 4%.

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