In this presentation Zach Selch outlines the Saudi Arabian medical‑device market, estimating it at roughly $2 billion annually and highlighting its attractiveness due to a high‑per‑capita GDP and a population of about 30 million. He explains how the market is heavily linked to oil revenue, with government healthcare contracts often triggered by oil‑price thresholds, causing occasional top‑line volatility. Seasonal and cultural factors—particularly Ramadan and August—slow decision‑making, and frequent turnover among Ministry of Health officials makes relationship continuity essential. Selch stresses that successful market entry hinges on finding the right local partner; most salespeople are long‑term expatriates (Egyptian, Lebanese, Jordanian, Palestinian) who operate under a Saudi licensing partner but drive day‑to‑day sales. Procurement is decentralized across three main government buyers—the Ministry of Health, the Army, and the National Guard—plus a growing private‑hospital chain sector. Therapeutic focus areas are lifestyle‑related diseases (diabetes, cardiac) and trauma from car accidents. Regulatory approval is straightforward: the Saudi FDA mirrors the US FDA, so FDA‑cleared or CE‑marked products face minimal hurdles. Networking opportunities center on Arab Health in Dubai and the American Commercial Service in Saudi Arabia, both of which facilitate introductions. Selch concludes with a call to action for companies ready to expand internationally, offering his team’s assistance.
Chapters
Saudi Arabian medical market is really the biggest market around in the Middle East. $2 billion just for devices. About 30 million people in Saudi Arabia with a per capita GDP which is higher than pretty much anyplace else, else in the Gulf. The economy In Saudi Arabia, it's focused specifically on oil, and they really haven't diversified very much. What you're also going to find is that a lot of government contracts, which means a lot of healthcare contracts, are related to the price of oil. Sometimes I've heard people say, yeah, the government has decided to build such-and-such a hospital when the price of oil hits a certain number, but if it doesn't hit that number, they're going to hold off until it does. So it can actually impact— there were a couple of years when The price of oil really impacted my top line because I knew that the big projects of Saudi Arabia were being held up. But Saudi Arabia can be a fantastic market if you do the work. Over the years, I've done tens of millions of dollars of business in the Saudi market. It's very attractive. Key is finding the right partner and patience. One of the things I've found also is you're going to see that in August and then also in Ramadan, everything pretty much shuts down, and it's very hard to grab people from the Ministry of Health and talk to them. When you're dealing with decision-makers from the Ministry of Health, they seem to change an awful lot. And one thing that I've found is that I'll meet people, decision-makers from the Ministry of Health, and then 3 months later they'll have been changed by somebody else. So you really need a good partner to keep track of your relationships in the Ministry of Health. Most of the partners I've dealt with in terms of salespeople Have been Egyptians or Lebanese. The Saudis typically have a partnership in the company, but typically they're not the ones actually doing the business. The business is going to come from people who are like Lebanese, Jordanian, Palestinian, and mostly Egyptian. And they'll sometimes live in Saudi Arabia for 20 years. They'll know everybody, but they won't be Saudi citizens. It's an interesting market because it's decentralized. A lot of it's government, but there are typically three main bodies of the government that buy healthcare. products. There's the Ministry of Health, but there's also the Army, and there's also the National Guard. So very often you're dealing with different groups, and sometimes your distributor will have excellent relationships with one and not so much with the others. So you got to make sure that you can access a fair amount of the market, and hopefully those 3 groups as well as the private hospital chains, because there's a lot of private hospital chains. Typically, the distributors you're going to be working with in the Saudi market are going to be Lebanese, Egyptians, possibly Palestinians. The Saudis you're going to meet are typically the government officials. They're going to be the buyers. They might be the owners of the company because very often there'll be a Saudi partner just to have the licensing. But the people who are doing the day-to-day heavy lifting and the selling are typically not going to be Saudis. The primary diseases you're going to see in Saudi Arabia have to do with lifestyle and interestingly enough car accidents. So things that deal with trauma, things that deal with preventing diabetes, cardiac, those type of things are all very attractive in the Saudi market. And the Saudi government has just recently built a whole number of large universities including A medical school for women. And that's being— that really needs to be stocked up and manned. So these are opportunities. And the American Commercial Service in Saudi Arabia are pretty good people, especially the people who work in the medical field. They've been in place for a long time. They're really top-notch. Everybody from Saudi Arabia, a lot of end users, clinicians, hospital owners, people like that, Everybody ends up at Arab Health in Dubai in February, so it's a great place to meet people. That's typically where I do a lot of my business. The Saudi FDA works very similarly to the American FDA. If you have FDA approval, getting Saudi FDA approval typically isn't difficult. Having CE mark also helps. So either having CE or FDA, you're probably going to be able to sell in Saudi Arabia regulatory-wise without any problems. The Saudis are very fond of American products. Typically they have no industry of their own, so they're either buying German or American products, and they're very good with American products. A lot of the bigger companies actually have offices in Saudi Arabia, although it's very rare to have a regional office for the Middle East in Saudi Arabia, just because the logistics and the business are so difficult compared to a place like Dubai or Qatar. Remember, when you're ready to grow your international sales, talk to us. We can help. When you decide it's time to grow your international sales, call us.
