Union minister of health and family welfare, Jagat Prakash Nadda launched the Drug Registry as a unified and standardised digital platform for drug-related information to address the issues including confusion in the market owing to the same drug available in different names and formats.
Conceptualised under the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM), the drug registry will serve as a single source of truth for medicines in India, enabling consistent identification, storage, exchange and usage of drug data across healthcare systems. It is expected to enable transparency, trust and seamless access to drug information across the nation.
Across healthcare systems in India, the same drug is often represented using different names and formats, leading to inconsistencies, duplication, data entry errors, and lack of interoperability. This creates challenges in clinical decision-making, e-prescriptions, supply chain management, and continuity of care, said the Ministry. It is to address this gap, the registry has been launched.
ABDM is building a robust digital health ecosystem through four core registries – ABHA Registry (for individuals), Healthcare Professional Registry (HPR), Health Facility Registry (HFR), and Drug Registry (for medicines).
The Drug Registry has been developed in collaboration with the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) and National Resource Centre for EHR Standards (NRCeS), Pune. It leverages international standards such as SNOMED CT to ensure interoperability and semantic consistency across platforms.
The registry includes standardized drug codes covering generic (clinical drugs), branded medicines, and substances. At present, the registry comprises of more than 1,23,000 branded drugs, more than 10,000 generic drugs, and over 29,000+ substances. The platform enables users to search and identify drugs using generic name, brand name, substance, and manufacturer.
Built on standardised terminology and aligned with global standards, the Drug Registry ensures accuracy, transparency, and seamless data exchange across healthcare systems. The registry is designed to integrate with Hospital Management Information Systems (HMIS), e-prescription platforms, doctor-facing applications, and ABDM-compliant digital health solutions.
It provides open APIs for seamless integration, thereby strengthening interoperability across India’s digital healthcare ecosystem. The registry connects healthcare providers, digital applications, and citizens to a verified and comprehensive drug database, said the ministry of health.
