DDA Notice Regarding the Red Line on Antimicrobial Medicines

As per international practice, a red line is marked on the primary and secondary packaging labels of antimicrobial medicines to reduce antimicrobial resistance caused by overuse, underuse, and unnecessary use of these medicines.

The red line helps users, healthcare professionals, and the general public to easily identify antimicrobial medicines and raises awareness about their proper use. Based on the recommendation of the Drug Advisory Committee, the DDA published a notice on 2080/05/11 to implement this marking system.

However, complaints have been received stating that the red line marking is not uniform across different company products, making it difficult for consumers to identify these medicines. Therefore, all concerned stakeholders (manufacturers and importers) are hereby reminded to ensure that the red line is clearly visible on the packaging as per the prescribed guidelines.

These antimicrobial medicines should only be dispensed based on a doctor’s prescription, and patients are also urged to use them only with a doctor’s prescription. Any unauthorized sale of these medicines without a doctor’s recommendation will be subject to legal action.

The sample of the red line marking on the packaging is provided below.