Importing medicines into Oman

The regulator

The Ministry of Health regulates medicines in Oman through its Drug Safety Center (DSC), which registers products, licenses pharmaceutical establishments and approves imports and customs release. Older Ministry documents use the name Directorate General of Pharmaceutical Affairs and Drug Control (DGPA&DC), and both names still appear in current material. Applications are filed through the Ministry's e-Health portal, and each DSC service page lists its documents, fee and completion time.

Supply to public hospitals and to private facilities runs through licensed pharmaceutical warehouses. The DSC publishes its rules as numbered circulars, so a buyer should check the latest circulars before relying on any older guidance.

Legal routes for unregistered medicines

The starting point is that a medicine must be registered and the importing company licensed. The DSC clearance service lists a registered drug and a registered company among its conditions, so an unregistered medicine needs its own approval first.

Non-registered drug import service

The Ministry runs an Import of Non Registered Drug e-service. It lets a business import an unregistered medicine through a licensed pharmaceutical warehouse, for both the private and the public sector. The applicant must hold a licensed warehouse and a purchase licence. The service has no fee and a listed completion time of about one week. The detailed conditions sit in a guideline brought into force by Circular No. 17 of 2024, dated 1 January 2024.

A 2019 law firm overview by Al Tamimi describes the earlier practice: special permission to import an unregistered product on a named-patient basis where a specific patient needs it and no suitable product is on the local market. The same overview reports that a non-registered medicine may be accepted in a public tender when its price is more favourable. Both points should be checked against the 2024 guideline.

Customs release

After approval, each batch needs DSC customs release and a no-objection to sale. The service takes one working day and costs 5 rials per batch. The invoice must be certified by the source and show batch numbers and dates, and the company's representative must be an Omani pharmacist. Biological products need a biological or plasma certificate.

Controlled medicines

Narcotic and psychotropic medicines need an import permit through the e-portal and a transport licence against every import permit, listed at 7 working days. Clearance also needs a no-objection certificate. The Indian export side needs its own controlled-drug authorisation.

Travellers

The Ministry's travel guidance allows a traveller to bring personal medicines with a medical report or prescription issued within six months, up to one month of use for controlled medicines and three months for others. It does not describe a route for a supplier to post medicines to a patient.

Documents a buyer usually needs

• Ministry approval for the non-registered drug, issued to the licensed warehouse
• Purchase licence and the hospital's purchase request or local purchase order
• Physician request explaining the patient need and why no registered product is suitable
• Commercial invoice certified by the source, showing batch numbers and manufacture and expiry dates
• Certificate of analysis for each batch, a GMP certificate and proof of registration in the country of origin
• Biological or plasma certificate where relevant
• No-objection certificate and transport licence for controlled drugs
• Packing list and air waybill

Timeline: a worked example

A hospital in Muscat needs a medicine for a named patient. The medicine is not registered in Oman.

Total: roughly 2 to 4 weeks from request to delivery. These are planning estimates, not published service times.

Shipping lanes from India

Muscat (MCT) has direct flights from Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and several Kerala airports, and Salalah (SLL) has a smaller number of direct routes. Express courier service is usually 2 to 5 days door to door for small, non-controlled parcels. Air cargo is usually 3 to 8 days including DSC release. Sea freight from Mundra or Nhava Sheva to Sohar or Salalah is a short lane for ambient tender volumes, but air remains the normal mode for named-patient and cold-chain supply.

CIP and DAP are the usual terms, and FCA suits warehouses with their own forwarder. DDP is rarely practical because the Omani warehouse holds the approval and clears the goods.

Practical tips for buyers

• Agree early which licensed warehouse will file the non-registered drug request, since the route runs through a warehouse rather than the hospital itself.
• Make sure the supplier certifies the commercial invoice by stamp or signature, a stated condition for release.
• Duty on HS 3004 medicines is 0 percent according to World Bank WITS data for the GCC common tariff.
• Oman's standard VAT rate is 5 percent. From 1 October 2026, Tax Authority Decision No. 224 of 2026 sets the list of zero-rated medicines and medical equipment, replacing Decision No. 59 of 2021, and zero-rating depends on Ministry of Health clearance.
• Excess quantities brought in by travellers are destroyed under Ministry supervision, so personal supply should stay within the stated limits.