Representatives of drug companies in the Saudi market have resorted to illegal practices such as offering bribes and gifts to market their drugs due to serious competition. The gift’s value can vary, but it depends on the volume of the prescribed medicine.

Mohammad Hassan, a pharmacist, explained that there are two kinds of drug companies in the Kingdom, a local and an international one.

“International companies have a unified marketing mechanism and are licensed by the FDA to enter the USA, Europe or Canada, while local companies can only market their products in their countries or neighboring countries,” Hassan explained.

Hassan said that local companies assign each representative a number of sales during the year which can be achieved by certain incentives, such as paying doctors’ fees, giving them phone cards or gifts.

The dean of the American College for Internal Doctors in Saudi Arabia, Dr. Khalid Qoshmaq, said relations between doctors, pharmacists and drug companies are ruled by moral laws and regulations issued by the FDA and other European organizations. They are also governed by local organizations such as the Saudi Food and Drug Authority.

Dr. Qoshmaq said that trading in medicine is virtually non-existent in government hospitals. “Some private sector companies award doctors with free prescriptions but global drug companies follow policies based on the mother companies in the US and Europe,” he commented.

Executive president for SPIMACO drug company, Fahad Ibrahim Al-Khalaf said the Saudi drug market is one of the most promising in the Middle East with a value of SR18 billion and it is expected to grow another SR9.6 billion by the year 2019.

“The open market policy in the Kingdom leads to Saudi companies facing fierce competition from global firms especially in manufacturing and registering bio-medicines,” Al- Khalaf said, adding that currency fluctuations of the market, as well as obtaining raw materials, were some of the challenges facing the industry.