Malaysia's pharmaceutical exports reached USD 638.01 million in 2025, up 35.3% from USD 471.43 million in 2024. That is a substantial jump and almost nobody has reported it.
The context that has to go with it: imports reached USD 2,698.23 million. Malaysia is a net importer of medicines by roughly USD 2.06 billion.
| Flow (HS Chapter 30) | 2025 (USD) | 2024 (USD) |
|---|---|---|
| Exports | 638.01 million | 471.43 million |
| Imports | 2,698.23 million | 2,402.53 million |
| Implied deficit | −2,060 million | −1,931 million |
| HS 3004 (dosage-form medicaments) — exports | 301.64 million | — |
Malaysia's only official confirmation
No Malaysian agency publishes an absolute ringgit value for pharmaceutical exports. DOSM's bulletin has no pharmaceutical line; MATRADE gives percentages only.
What MATRADE did state, for January–April 2026: pharmaceutical products posted double-digit growth of 21.9%. That corroborates the direction, not the size.
What NPRA registered in 2025
NPRA's Annual Report 2025, published 11 August 2026, gives the annual flows:
- Health supplements: 648 applications, 593 registered
- Natural products: 702 applications, 568 registered
- Prescription medicines: 390 registered · non-prescription: 105 · veterinary: 34
- GMP certificates issued: 634; GMP inspections: 382; manufacturer licences: 300
These are annual flows, not a cumulative stock. No total of registered products is published.
The RM15.7 billion figure — what it actually means
"Malaysia's pharmaceutical market growing from RM15.7 billion (2025) to RM21.4 billion (2029)" is a forecast by BMI / Fitch Solutions, a commercial research firm, reported by Bernama in November 2025.
Two things get confused about it constantly: it is a forecast, not an actual; and it is domestic market size, not exports. The two are routinely conflated in coverage.
The halal connection
Halal pharmaceuticals are USD 112 billion of global spending in 2024, projected at USD 146 billion by 2029 (DinarStandard).
In Malaysia, only 80 of the 1,822 halal contract manufacturing plants hold JAKIM's pharmaceutical category — one of the smallest categories in the directory. That is not accidental: pharmaceutical production requires NPRA registration and GMP compliance separate from halal.
Sources and vintage
Figures on this page are as published by the bodies below, and are dated in the text where the vintage matters. Trade statistics are revised: 2025 figures from MATRADE and KPKM are provisional and will be restated. Where a figure is a forecast or a commercial estimate rather than an actual, we say so on the line itself.