Sources & methods
Where each field comes from
Prices, trade names, ingredients, numerical strengths and dosage forms come from the public SFDA drugs list. Registration IDs are extracted from the official product-record URLs, trimmed and deduplicated. 9,215 captured rows resolve to 9,161 priced registration IDs in the 2026-10-26 release.
Pack counts, volumes, strength units, route, manufacturers, marketing company, legal status, product control and authorization status come from the matching individual SFDA registry record. A complete matching registration is required before these extra fields are used. Missing or mismatched records are labelled as unverified; a numeric strength without a verified unit is never silently assigned “mg”.
When data is checked
The held captures are 7 and 26 October 2026. The current price and product-record capture is 2026-10-26; the sources record was checked on 2026-10-26. Checks take place before each data release. This site has no live pharmacy feed and no scheduled daily refresh; it does not claim real-time prices or stock. Future captures must pass the build and data checks before publication, and each page displays the actual capture date.
History without invented baselines
The 7 October capture has 2,660 registration IDs and is incomplete. The history compares prices only for the same registration ID in both snapshots. Change = newer price − older price. Percentage = change ÷ older price × 100. A missing ID is reported as a missing baseline, not a new registration, a withdrawal or an unchanged price. Snapshot dates are observations, not regulatory effective dates.
Exact comparison rules
We reuse a conservative matcher: the complete ingredient-and-strength pairs and the exact normalized dosage-form wording must match. Numeric strings such as 150 and 150.0 normalize to the same number; salts and strength units are not converted. We additionally require verified matching strength units and route. Extended-release and prolonged-release wording remain different. Only cheaper other brands are listed on a product page.
Saving in SAR = current product pack price − comparator pack price. Saving % = saving ÷ current product pack price × 100. Pack counts and volumes are displayed because a lower pack price may cover a smaller quantity. Ingredient-wide ranges can include different forms and strengths and are labelled accordingly. No clinical interchangeability is inferred.
What a price includes
Prices are the published official SFDA retail price for the registered pack, in Saudi riyals, displayed with at least two decimals, preserving a third decimal when SFDA publishes one. We do not manufacture a separate VAT calculation, insurance reimbursement amount, dispensing fee, per-strip price or shop discount. Where a pack field is missing, it stays missing.
Legal status and travel sources
Prescription and product-control labels come from individual records; schedule entries come from the original SFDA schedules PDF. Explicit salt spellings are mapped to their named schedule entry only for status lookup, never for alternative matching. An ingredient’s schedule does not overwrite a product-specific control field. Traveller clearance statements link to section 4.2 and the SFDA traveller manual.
Questions and publication scope
Guide headings and factual questions use actual recorded search queries. We skip clinical, other-market, stock and unsupported questions. For anonymous or missing query rows, the registered name and factual pack questions provide the guide’s scope. 366 language-specific medicine and ingredient pages are published; the remaining list entries are searchable without dedicated pages. Only existing guides receive internal medicine links.
Prices are official SFDA retail prices. Ask your pharmacist about the pack, price and availability.