Supplying Medicines and Supplements to Qatar

Qatar is a high-income market with a clear structure. Agents register with the Ministry of Public Health's pharmacy department, and health facilities buy only from authorised agents or licensed importers.

Public demand is concentrated: Hamad Medical Corporation's tender committee buys medicines for both HMC and the Ministry, so getting onto HMC's vendor portal matters as much as registration.

Qatar at a glance

How to supply medicines to Qatar

1. Appoint an authorised agent. Your Qatari agent registers with the MoPH pharmacy department and handles the product registration.
2. Prepare the dossier. A CTD dossier in the Gulf Health Council format, with a CoPP and the plant's GMP evidence.
3. Consider Gulf-wide registration. The Gulf Health Council can register the manufacturing company and the product centrally for all six GCC states. Each country then issues its own certificate and sets the price, and GHC registration is also the entry ticket to the Gulf joint procurement tenders.
4. Supply. Private pharmacies and facilities through your agent, or HMC tenders once you are registered on its e-business portal.

For a medicine not registered in Qatar, ask your agent whether a special import is possible for your case. See named-patient and special import and government tender supply.

Supplements

All dietary supplements must be registered with the Ministry of Public Health before sale. They have to meet the Gulf standards GSO 2571/2021 and GSO 9, and a certificate of composition is required. We help brands get supplements made under their own label by GMP-certified contract manufacturers: see nutraceutical private label.

What people in Qatar search for

Semrush data from October 2026 shows that people in Qatar search most for vitamin D (about 2,900 searches a month), vitamin C (1,900), vitamin B12 (1,600), whey protein and collagen (1,300 each). “protein powder in qatar” and “protein supplements in qatar” get about 1,000 each.

Most searches are in English, with Arabic alongside: “صيدلية” (pharmacy) gets between 10,000 and 100,000 searches a month, and “فيتامين د” (vitamin D), “كولاجين” (collagen), “بروتين” (protein) and “مكملات غذائية” (food supplements) between 100 and 1,000 each (Google Keyword Planner, October 2026). Among medicines, “desloratadine” (720), “amlodipine” (650) and “pantoprazole” (480) are searched by their generic names (Semrush).

How importers and agents in Qatar search

The regulator itself is a common search: “moph qatar” gets between 1,000 and 10,000 searches a month, and “pharmaceutical companies in qatar” between 100 and 1,000 (Google Keyword Planner). Arabic phrases such as “شركات الادوية في قطر” (pharmaceutical companies in Qatar) and “تسجيل المكملات الغذائية” (supplement registration) register only weakly.

Originator brands searched by name include Celebrex (celecoxib), Cataflam (diclofenac), Daflon (diosmin and hesperidin) and Nexium (esomeprazole). Brand names are trademarks of their owners and are used only to identify the medicine.

Supplements we can help you make

Often searched medicines include celecoxib, diclofenac and desloratadine. 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 Middle East and North Africa import guide.

Frequently asked questions