Patient Support Programmes in Saudi Arabia: Best Practices for Pharma in 2026
Adherence averages 50%. How Saudi pharma teams design compliant, multimodal Patient Support Programmes that improve persistence and outcomes.
Key takeaways
- A meta-analysis found patient support programmes more than doubled the odds of treatment adherence and added 42 days of persistence.
- In a Saudi study of over 5,000 patients, only 48.6% demonstrated good adherence to oral diabetes medications.
- Multimodal programmes that combine education with behavioural support and maintain regular contact through the first 12 months achieve better persistence.
Reviewed by the CareSync Medical Team · Last reviewed
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A Patient Support Programme (PSP) is a structured service, usually funded by a pharmaceutical company, that helps patients start, take and stay on a prescribed therapy through education, onboarding, adherence support and follow-up. In Saudi Arabia, PSPs are moving from a nice-to-have service to a core part of how medicines prove their value.
Three forces drive that shift: a heavy chronic disease burden, a health system moving towards paying for outcomes, and a wave of complex therapies, from GLP-1 medicines to biologics, that patients struggle to stay on without help. This guide sets out the best practices that separate high-performing PSPs from expensive call centres.
Key takeaways
- Non-adherence is the default, not the exception. The WHO estimates adherence to long-term therapies averages only 50% in developed countries. In a Saudi study of more than 5,000 patients, only 48.6% had good adherence to oral diabetes medicines.
- Well-designed PSPs work. A meta-analysis found patient programmes more than doubled the odds of adherence and added 42 days of persistence.
- Multimodal beats single-channel. Programmes combining education with behavioural support outperform information alone.
- The first year decides it. Regular contact through the first 12 months is consistently associated with better persistence.
- In Saudi Arabia, the provider's channel matters. Patients trust clinicians at 89%; PSPs delivered with the treating team keep that trust and the clinical context.
Why do Patient Support Programmes matter more in Saudi Arabia now?
PSPs have existed for decades, but four Saudi-specific shifts make 2026 a turning point.
- The chronic disease burden is large and under-managed. An estimated 5.3 million Saudi adults live with diabetes, 43.6% of them undiagnosed, and 23.1% of adults live with obesity. Local studies consistently report moderate to low adherence, with forgetting doses the most common reason in one Jeddah primary care cohort.
- Therapies are getting more complex. GLP-1 medicines, biologics and specialty therapies require titration, injection training and side-effect management. In a large US cohort, 64.8% of GLP-1 users without type 2 diabetes stopped within a year.
- Payment is shifting to outcomes. As health clusters become accountable care organisations and payers move towards risk-adjusted capitation, therapies will be judged on real-world results, not just prescriptions.
- Patients are digital and willing. EY found 78% of Saudi respondents track their health digitally and 88% are willing to share their data, giving PSPs a channel and a data stream that did not exist a few years ago.
- Diabetes cases undiagnosed43.6%
- Adults living with obesity23.1%
- Good adherence to oral diabetes medicines48.6%
- GLP-1 users (without T2D) stopping within a year64.8%
- Track their health digitally78%
- Willing to share their health data88%
Sources: IDF Diabetes Atlas; Saudi T2D adherence study; JAMA Network Open 2024; EY.
The implication: a PSP is now the mechanism that turns a prescription into an outcome, and an outcome into evidence a Saudi payer will recognise.
What are the best practices for Patient Support Programmes?
The evidence points to a consistent set of design choices. A meta-analysis of patient programmes found multimodal programmes outperform those using information or behavioural strategies alone, and a review of 64 programmes found positive effects on adherence, clinical and quality-of-life outcomes in most studies that measured them.
Stage 3, starting therapy, is highlighted because it is where most avoidable drop-off happens: side effects, dose changes and early doubts.
- Enrol through the prescriber. Referral by the treating clinician sets expectations, keeps the clinical context and builds trust. Capture explicit consent under PDPL at the start.
- Profile needs, then personalise. Not every patient needs the same intensity. Segment by barrier, whether forgetting, side effects, beliefs, cost or device confidence, and match support to it.
- Combine channels. Pair education with behavioural support: a nurse call, reminders, app-based check-ins and printed or video material in Arabic. Multimodal programmes consistently outperform single-channel ones.
- Front-load the first 12 months. Programmes with regular contact through the first year show better adherence and persistence. Concentrate effort around initiation and titration.
- Involve the wider support network. In Saudi families, caregivers often manage appointments and medicines. Give them access, with the patient's consent.
- Close the loop with the care team. Share adherence summaries and flags with the treating clinician so problems are addressed in the next consultation, not discovered months later.
- Evaluate systematically. Define inputs, activities, outputs, outcomes and impact before launch, and review them on a fixed cycle.
How should a PSP stay compliant in Saudi Arabia?
A PSP touches patients directly, so it sits at the intersection of drug safety, promotion rules and data protection. Getting these right is a design requirement, not a final review step.
| Area | What to build in | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Pharmacovigilance | Train every patient-facing staff member to recognise and report adverse events; log and forward them to the marketing authorisation holder within agreed timelines | SFDA expects companies to capture safety information from all patient contact, including support programmes |
| Promotion separation | Keep PSP content educational and product-neutral where required; separate PSP teams and data from sales targeting | Prescription medicines cannot be promoted to the public; a PSP must not become a promotional channel |
| Data protection | Explicit consent at enrolment, purpose limitation, local hosting and a Data Protection Officer where required | Health data is sensitive personal data under the PDPL, fully enforceable since 14 September 2024 |
| Clinical governance | A named medical reviewer for all content and escalation protocols for clinical concerns | Patients may raise symptoms; nurses and coordinators need clear routes to the treating clinician |
| Vendor oversight | Contracts, audits and service-level agreements for any third-party PSP provider | The company remains accountable for safety reporting and data protection |
Two practical rules help most. First, route clinical decisions to the treating clinician: the PSP supports, it does not prescribe. Second, keep the firewall between support and sales visible: patients and clinicians engage more when they trust the programme is about them, not market share.
This section summarises general practice and is not legal or regulatory advice; confirm current SFDA pharmacovigilance and advertising requirements for each programme.
How do you measure whether a PSP is working?
Many programmes report activity, such as calls made and messages sent, rather than results. In a systematic review of 64 programmes, only 15 reported cost or utilisation outcomes, although 12 of those found a positive impact. Payers moving to value-based purchasing will expect the outcome layer.
| Level | KPI | What good looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Reach | Enrolment rate among eligible prescriptions | Most eligible patients are offered and accept support |
| Engagement | Active participation at 3 and 6 months | Patients still respond to check-ins after the first weeks |
| Adherence | Proportion of days covered or medication possession ratio above 80% | Higher than a comparable non-enrolled group |
| Persistence | Share still on therapy at 6 and 12 months; time to discontinuation | Fewer early drop-offs, especially in the first 90 days |
| Clinical | Condition-specific markers such as HbA1c, weight or disease activity scores | Movement towards treatment targets |
| Humanistic | Patient-reported outcomes and satisfaction | Better quality of life and confidence in self-management |
| Economic | Avoidable admissions and emergency visits | Lower utilisation that payers can recognise |
| Safety | Adverse events captured and reported on time | Complete, timely pharmacovigilance reporting |
Build a comparison group into the design, through matched cohorts or staged rollout, so results are credible to clinicians and payers rather than self-reported success stories.
Frequently asked questions
What is a Patient Support Programme? A structured service, usually funded by a pharmaceutical company, that helps patients start, take and stay on a prescribed therapy through onboarding, education, adherence support and follow-up.
Do Patient Support Programmes improve adherence? Yes, when well designed. A meta-analysis found patient programmes increased the odds of adherence by about 2.5 times and extended persistence by 42 days, with multimodal programmes performing best.
How common is non-adherence in Saudi Arabia? It is significant. In one Saudi study of more than 5,000 patients with type 2 diabetes, only 48.6% had good adherence to oral diabetes medicines, and forgetting doses is a frequently reported reason.
Can a PSP report adverse events? It must. Any patient contact can surface an adverse event, so staff need training to recognise it and processes to report it to the marketing authorisation holder for pharmacovigilance.
Can a PSP promote a medicine to patients in Saudi Arabia? No. Prescription medicines cannot be promoted to the public. A PSP should provide support and education and keep a clear separation from sales activity.
What KPIs should a PSP track? Enrolment, engagement, adherence, persistence, clinical markers, patient-reported outcomes, avoidable utilisation and safety reporting, ideally against a comparison group.
From service to evidence engine
In Saudi Arabia, the best Patient Support Programmes will do more than remind patients to take their medicine. They will be delivered with the treating clinician, personalised to each patient's barriers, compliant by design and measured on outcomes payers recognise. That is how a PSP earns its budget in a value-based system.
Ready to run your PSP through the provider's own channel? Book a CareSync demo at care-sync.co.
About CareSync
This article was prepared by the CareSync Team, drawing on experience across pharma, medical affairs, market access and digital health in Saudi Arabia. CareSync is a white-label continuous-care platform built in Riyadh for hospitals, clinics and pharma Patient Support Programmes.
Sources
- World Health Organization. Failure to take prescribed medicine for chronic diseases is a massive, world-wide problem. Adherence to Long-Term Therapies: Evidence for Action, 2003.
- Burudpakdee, C. et al. Impact of patient programs on adherence and persistence in inflammatory and immunologic diseases: a meta-analysis. Patient Preference and Adherence, 2015.
- Ganguli, A., Clewell, J. and Shillington, A. The impact of patient support programs on adherence, clinical, humanistic, and economic patient outcomes: a targeted systematic review. Patient Preference and Adherence, 2016.
- Pharmaceutical Commerce. What makes patient support programs work, and what doesn't, 7 July 2026.
- Adherence to oral antidiabetic drugs among patients with type 2 diabetes in a tertiary hospital in Saudi Arabia. Real-world study of more than 5,000 patients.
- Type 2 diabetic patients' adherence towards their medications. National Guard Health Affairs, Jeddah.
- International Diabetes Federation. IDF Diabetes Atlas: Saudi Arabia.
- Rodriguez, P.J. et al. Discontinuation and Reinitiation of Dual-Labeled GLP-1 Receptor Agonists Among US Adults With Overweight or Obesity. JAMA Network Open, 2025.
- Strategy& (PwC). Transforming healthcare financing in Saudi Arabia, 2025.
- EY. How digital health is driving more connected care in Saudi Arabia, 2026.
- Clyde & Co. Saudi Arabia's Personal Data Protection Law becomes enforceable, 2024.