Countries and destinations covered

These groupings help you find the right country. Each one sets its own medicine rules.

  • Detailed guides: United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
  • Other destinations: Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Syria and Yemen.
  • Turkey has its own country guide in the Europe group, and Cyprus sits in the European list. These groupings help you find a country. They do not decide its medicine rules.

Know your medicine's legal category

What matters is the status of your exact active ingredient and product. Prescription-only, controlled, unregistered and prohibited are four different categories. A narcotic permit rule does not apply to a GLP-1 medicine because it is injected. Equally, do not assume a normal prescription is enough until you have checked the destination. Your other medicines may fall under different rules from your GLP-1 treatment.

Use the authority in charge today

In the UAE, the Emirates Drug Establishment now runs the personal medicine service, after some MOHAP services moved across. Saudi Arabia has SFDA guidance for travellers carrying controlled medicines. Each is a national process. No regional permit exists. If a document names an older service or authority, follow the current official process and confirm what information you need before you travel.

Check every stop on your trip

Passing through a hub airport may raise a different question from staying in the country. Find out whether you stay airside, collect your luggage or pass through immigration, and ask the authority about that exact case. Check your final destination too. Keep the prescription, the packaging and any permit letters to hand. Another traveller's smooth trip proves nothing about your quantity or your medicine.

Plan your care and storage for a long stay

For a long stay, find a suitable local clinician and ask whether they can supply your medicine and strength. Check insurance or private costs separately. Ask the pharmacist about heat exposure during airport, car and hotel transfers for your exact product. If fasting or other changes during travel may affect your routine, ask your clinician for a personal plan. Do not change doses based on general advice online.

Check local approval for each product

Mounjaro, Wegovy injection, oral Wegovy and Foundayo each need their own local approval check. Where nobody has completed that check, the status is unconfirmed, which does not make the product illegal. Use the country guides and the official authorities to answer the product, prescription and import questions before you buy.

Country guides in this region

Sources

Your own medicine leaflet and prescriber come first. A source from another country does not mean the same rule applies in the UK.

  1. EDE: personal medicine import service ede.gov.ae
  2. SFDA: controlled medicines for travellers sfda.gov.sa

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