NEW DELHI: In a move aimed at eliminating confusion over medicine information across India’s healthcare system, the Centre on Monday launched a Drug Registry, a national digital database that gives medicines a standard identity, enabling hospitals, doctors, pharmacies and digital health platforms to access the same verified drug information.Launched by Union health minister Jagat Prakash Nadda under the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM), the Drug Registry is designed to address a long-standing problem where the same medicine is often recorded under different names and formats across healthcare systems, leading to inconsistencies, duplication, data entry errors and poor interoperability.The registry will serve as a single source of truth for medicines in the country, enabling consistent identification, storage, exchange and use of drug-related information. The health ministry said it is expected to improve clinical decision-making, support e-prescriptions, strengthen supply chain management and ensure continuity of care.Developed in collaboration with the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) and the National Resource Centre for EHR Standards (NRCeS), Pune, the platform uses international standards, including SNOMED CT, to ensure interoperability and semantic consistency across healthcare systems.The registry currently contains more than 1.23 lakh branded medicines, 10,000 generic drugs and 29,000 substances. Medicines can be searched by generic name, brand name, substance or manufacturer, allowing healthcare providers and digital platforms to access verified and standardised drug information.The platform is designed to integrate with Hospital Management Information Systems (HMIS), e-prescription platforms, doctor-facing applications and other ABDM-compliant digital health solutions. It also provides open APIs for seamless integration, strengthening interoperability across India’s digital healthcare ecosystem.The Drug Registry is the fourth core registry under the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission after the ABHA Registry, Healthcare Professional Registry and Health Facility Registry.
