Nadda launches Drug Registry under ABDM to standardise medicine data
Platform developed with CDSCO and NRCeS includes over 123,000 branded drugs and supports integration with digital health systems
Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Shri Jagat Prakash Nadda, has launched the Drug Registry, a digital platform for drug-related information, to standardise medicine data across healthcare systems in India.
According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, medicines are among the most critical data elements in healthcare delivery. However, the same drug is often represented using different names and formats across healthcare systems in India, leading to inconsistencies, duplication, data entry errors and lack of interoperability. The ministry stated that these issues create challenges in clinical decision-making, e-prescriptions, supply chain management and continuity of care.
The Drug Registry has been conceptualised under the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) and serves as a single source of truth for medicines in India. According to the ministry, it enables consistent identification, storage, exchange and usage of drug data across healthcare systems.
The ministry stated that ABDM is building a digital health ecosystem through four core registries: the ABHA Registry for individuals, the Healthcare Professional Registry (HPR), the Health Facility Registry (HFR) and the Drug Registry for medicines.
The Drug Registry has been developed in collaboration with the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) and the National Resource Centre for EHR Standards (NRCeS), Pune. It uses international standards, including SNOMED CT, to support interoperability and semantic consistency across platforms.
According to the ministry, the registry includes standardised drug codes covering generic clinical drugs, branded medicines and substances.
The Drug Registry currently comprises more than 123,000 branded drugs, 10,000 generic drugs and 29,000 substances.
The platform enables users to search and identify drugs using generic name, brand name, substance and manufacturer.
According to the ministry, the Drug Registry has been built on standardised terminology aligned with global standards to support 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 also provides open APIs for integration across India’s digital healthcare ecosystem and connects healthcare providers, digital applications and citizens to a verified drug database.