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Background:Low- and middle-income countries bear the highest burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) mortality and morbidity. Syria has undergone an epidemiological transition from infectious diseases to NCDs in the past decades. Despite the high prevalence of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) and diabetes in Syria, little is known about medicines utilization or prescriptions for these diseases. The aims of this study are to present the patterns and rates of dispensing medicines used for CVDs and diabetes among patients with government health insurance in Syria and examine age, sex, and regional variation in the dispensing of these medicines.MethodsOutpatient data from June 2018 to May 2019 on dispensed medicines for 81,314 adults with government health insurance were obtained. The dispensing rate was expressed as the number of defined daily doses (DDDs) per 1,000 beneficiaries per day (DID). The number of DIDs was adjusted according to beneficiaries’ sex, age, and governorate.ResultsBeneficiaries received 337.75 DIDs of CVDs medicines and 35.66 DIDs of diabetes medicines, including 0.96 DID of insulin. CVDs and diabetes medicine dispensing rates were low during the study period and included very low rates of insulin dispensing. There were lower dispensing rates of CVDs and diabetes medicines among female beneficiaries. In addition, there were lower rates of CVDs and diabetes medicines and very low to no dispensing of insulin in some governorates that were only partly controlled by the Syrian government.ConclusionsAdditional efforts are needed to raise awareness about the prevention and management of CVDs and diabetes especially among females in Syria and consider cultural issues that might influence access to healthcare services. There is a crucial need to address the political and geographical challenges caused by the conflict which have limited access to CVDs and diabetes medicines in some regions in Syria.