Vaccines for humans: Belgium leads in exports

Belgium was the largest exporter vaccine for people in 2022, reaching $46 billion, according to Eurostat.

This amount represents an increase of 3.6% compared to 2021 and is a record.

Within these exports, $35.700 million was for vaccines related to coronaviruses.

According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), vaccine production is highly specialized, dependent on comparative advantage and concentrated in a few countries.

The Covid-19 pandemic has prompted the export of vaccines for human medicine. In the case of Belgium, they rose from $11.8 billion in 2020 to $44.5 billion in 2021.

The latest trade data available show that while most countries in the world import vaccines, relatively few countries export them.

As of 2020, vaccines are imported by 208 countries (relative to other products, vaccines rank 6th percentile of total importing countries) and exported by 90 countries (relative to other products, vaccines rank 35th percentile of total exporting countries). All countries need vaccines, but not all can produce them.

Vaccines for humans

While each vaccine has different components, according to the OECD, the vaccine supply chain can be divided into three or sometimes four key stages (depending on the vaccine).

First comes drug discovery, then mass production, then distribution and introduction, and finally reverse logistics (in case products like refrigerators need to be returned).

Export of human vaccines from China they have grown from $280 million in 2020 to $15,660 million in 2021 and just $993 million in 2022.

According to the US government, vaccines are injections, liquids, pills, or nasal sprays that people take to train their body’s immune system to recognize and defend against harmful germs.

For example, there are vaccines to protect against diseases caused by viruses, such as those that cause influenza and Covid-19, and bacteria, such as tetanus, diphtheria, and whooping cough.

Finally, the export of human vaccines from USA According to Department of Commerce statistics, they rose from $1.77 billion to $14.81 billion from 2020 to 2021 before falling to $7,920.