Last Updated on September 27, 2023
Alternative Medicines and Health Products include complementary medicine ingredients such as vitamin, mineral, herbal products and homoeopathic preparations. They are non-prescription products and are known as alternative medicines and health products.
DRAP currently enlists alternative medicines and health products. As effective as they might appear to users, these are not an alternative to the drugs that are prescribed to patients by their doctors, for treating a specific disease or a set of diseases after performing a thorough diagnosis.
Alternative medicine and health products are regulated for providing quality assured and safe products to the citizens. DRAP Act 2012 and rules framed thereunder stipulate the conditions on which these products can be manufactured or imported for use in Pakistan.
What are alternative medicines and health products?
Alternative Medicine means medicinal products which include:
- Indigenous or unani medicine
- Homeopathic medicines
- Herbal preparation, herbal substance, herbal proprietary medicines, herbal medicinal product,
- Phyto-medicines or any other related products which have been derived from plant, animal or mineral ingredients alone or their combinations but does not contain chemically defined synthetic ingredients
- Health products means products covered in enlistment rules including food supplements and nutritional products and dietetic foods for infants
Division of Health & OTC under DRAP Act 2012 is responsible to performs following functions for regulating local manufacturers and importers and their products (human and animal)
- Pre enlistment evaluation/assessment of applications of local manufacturers and importers to be enlisted as local manufacturers/ importers.
- Enlistment of local manufacturers/ importers
- Pre enlistment assessment / evaluation of applied products of local manufacturers/ importers.
- Enlistment of products to local manufacturers/importers.
- Post enlistment variations of enlisted local manufacturers/ importers.
- Post enlistment variations of enlisted products of local manufacturers/ importers
- Assessment of applications for contract manufacturing as local contract manufacturers
- Pre Enlistment evaluations of products applied for contract manufacturing
- Enlistment of products for contract manufacturing
Laws being followed for the performance of functions by the Division are:
- DRAP Act 2012
- Alternative Medicines and Health Products (Enlistment) Rules, 2014