Market Access in the Gulf: What Life Sciences Companies Get Wrong

The Gulf Cooperation Council represents one of the fastest-growing pharmaceutical markets globally, yet a majority of international life sciences companies apply strategies built for European HTA frameworks and find themselves stalled at the pricing committee stage.

The core misunderstanding

Market access in GCC is not a single market. Saudi Arabia's SFDA operates under different value frameworks than the UAE's DOH, which in turn differs significantly from Qatar's MOPH. A dossier optimised for NCBE (Saudi) will not translate cleanly to the UAE's HAAD or DHA pathways.

What the data shows

Our analysis of 200+ market access submissions across GCC from 2019–2024 shows that the three most common failure points are: (1) clinical evidence packages that do not reference local epidemiological data, (2) health economic models built on European utility values, and (3) stakeholder engagement strategies that underestimate the role of clinical champions at the hospital level.

A better approach

Companies that succeed in GCC typically do three things differently. They localise their evidence early — engaging regional KOLs during phase III design, not after approval. They build dual dossiers: one for the national health authority and a separate, leaner brief for hospital formulary committees. And they invest in relationship infrastructure before they need it.

Implications for 2025 and beyond

With Saudi Vision 2030 driving significant changes to reimbursement frameworks and the UAE executing its National Agenda for Healthcare, the window for establishing early presence is now. Companies that wait for a product's registration to think about market access will find the landscape considerably more complex.

Biowave Healthcare Consultancy works with life sciences companies entering and expanding across MENA markets. Contact us to discuss your market access strategy.