Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, Korea's medicine export marked an all-time high of $7.4 billion last year, an increase of 74.4 percent from 2019. 

The nation’s monthly drug export had continued to rise to surpass $500 million for the first time in March last year. It took less than a year for the monthly shipment to break the $1 billion landmark in December, according to the Korea International Trade Association.  

Thanks to the brisk export, the international trade of medicine also turned to a surplus of $38 million for the first time in September, and the monthly surplus widened to $300 million in the final month of 2020, KITA said.

In December, the export of medicines and pharmaceutical products totaled $1.06 billion, recording hefty gains of 164.1 percent from the same month of 2019 and marking an increase of more than $250 million from $754 million recorded in November.

The monthly growth rate, which had hovered above 50 percent since May, finally soared to the 160 percent range in December.

Shipments to Germany took the lead in overall export.

The European country bought $1.86 billion (2.5 trillion won) worth of medicines and medical supplies from Korea last year, exceeding the nation’s total export of $1.82 billion in 2015. It marked the first time that exports to a single country exceeded 1 trillion won.

Germany’s import of Korean medicines and medical supplies increased from $413.4 million in 2018 to $521.3 million in 2019, surpassing the United States, which had long been the largest export destination.

Germany’s share in overall pharmaceutical exports also increased from 12.6 percent in 2018 to 14.1 percent in 2019 and 26.9 percent last year, accounting for more than a quarter of Korea's entire drug exports.

Following Germany’s lead were the U.S., Turkey, the Netherlands, Japan, India, China, Hungary, Switzerland, and Brazil. Exports to the U.S. also increased 48 percent to $604 million over the period.