Supplying Medicines and Supplements to Honduras

Honduras offers one of the clearest openings in Central America for foreign suppliers on the public side: the social security institute, IHSS, buys through UNOPS, which runs open international tenders on the UN Global Marketplace.

The health ministry's large 2025 tender largely failed, and it turned to direct purchases, COMISCA and the PAHO Strategic Fund. On the registration side there's no fast track, so plan for four to eight months.

Honduras at a glance

How to supply medicines to Honduras

1. Find a local regente. A licensed Honduran pharmacist holds the registration on your behalf, usually through your importer.
2. Prepare the dossier. A CTD dossier with a CoPP and the plant's GMP evidence.
3. Register with ARSA. Allow four to eight months. The registration is valid for five years.
4. Supply. Private distributors and pharmacies, UNOPS tenders for IHSS on the UN Global Marketplace, or COMISCA and PAHO channels for the health ministry.

Only investigational products can be imported without registration; no named-patient route was found. See named-patient and special import and government tender supply.

Supplements

Nutritional supplements are registered with, or notified to, ARSA, which publishes a list of permitted ingredients and levels. We help brands get supplements made under their own label by GMP-certified contract manufacturers: see nutraceutical private label.

What people in Honduras search for

Semrush data from October 2026 shows that people in Honduras search most for vitamin D (about 4,400 searches a month), protein (3,600), vitamin C and creatine (2,900 each). Among medicines, paracetamol, omega-3, metronidazole, atorvastatin and ibuprofen lead.

Hondurans search in Spanish: “vitamina D” gets about 4,400 searches a month, “proteínas” 3,600, “vitamina C” and “creatina” 2,900 each, “colágeno” 2,400 and “creatina monohidratada” 1,300 (Semrush, October 2026). Medicines are typed by their Spanish generic name, such as “metronidazol” (about 4,720 a month), “atorvastatina” (4,610), “ibuprofeno” (4,400), “dexketoprofeno” (4,320) and “cetirizina” (3,860).

How importers and distributors in Honduras search

Across seven Central American and Caribbean markets combined, Honduras among them, Google Keyword Planner shows “droguería” between 1,000 and 10,000 monthly searches, and “distribuidora de medicamentos”, “laboratorio farmacéutico” and “registro sanitario de medicamentos” between 100 and 1,000.

Originator brands searched by name include Daflon (diosmin and hesperidin), Forxiga (dapagliflozin), Concor (bisoprolol), Nexium (esomeprazole) and Eliquis (apixaban). Brand names are trademarks of their owners and are used only to identify the medicine.

Supplements we can help you make

The most searched medicines include paracetamol (about 5,400 a month), metronidazole, atorvastatin, ibuprofen, dexketoprofen and cetirizine. Some examples we list:

Documents to ask your supplier for

• A Certificate of a Pharmaceutical Product (CoPP) in WHO format.
• The plant's GMP evidence, such as a WHO-GMP, EU-GMP or PIC/S certificate, plus any inspection by your regulator.
• The registration dossier (CTD or ACTD), with bioequivalence data for generics where required.
• Stability data for hot climates.
• A Certificate of Analysis for every batch.

Not sure a supplier is genuine? Read how to verify a pharmaceutical supplier. For the neighbouring markets, see our Latin America and Caribbean import guide.

Frequently asked questions