This is general information, not legal advice.
Ask us how the prescription flow and H1 register report would work for how your clinic dispenses.
Ask us on WhatsAppA prescription for a Schedule H or H1 drug in India is not valid just because a doctor wrote it. It has to carry specific fields, and for the narrower Schedule H1 list, the pharmacy filling it has a separate record-keeping obligation that runs for three years.
Both lists are sold only against a Registered Medical Practitioner's prescription. H1 adds record-keeping on top.
Schedule H and Schedule H1 are lists of drugs under India's Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945 that cannot be sold over the counter. Rule 65(9)(a) states that drugs specified in Schedule H, Schedule H1, or Schedule X may not be sold by retail except on and in accordance with the prescription of a Registered Medical Practitioner.
| Schedule H | Schedule H1 | |
|---|---|---|
| Sale restriction | Only against an RMP prescription | Only against an RMP prescription |
| Separate sale register required | No | Yes, a dedicated H1 register |
| Original prescription retained by seller | Not mandated | Generally yes, not returned to the patient |
| Record retention period | Not separately mandated | 3 years, open to inspection |
| Typical drug categories | Broad list of non-OTC prescription drugs | Select antibiotics, habit-forming drugs, anti-TB drugs, added via G.S.R. 588(E), 2013 |
None of this changes because a prescription is generated on a screen instead of a pad.
For Schedule H and H1 drugs specifically, the label the pharmacist dispenses against also has to carry the 'Rx' symbol and the statutory warning text set out in the rules.
Whoever supplies an H1 drug at retail logs it in a separate register at the time of sale.
Five things are built into the flow, so they cannot be an Rx-by-Rx omission.
Clinical judgement and the validity of a doctor's registration stay the doctor's responsibility.
Schedule X drugs, narcotic and psychotropic substances under stricter separate control, are not covered by anything in this article. Do not assume Schedule H1 handling is sufficient for a Schedule X drug.
If a clinic sends patients to an external pharmacy rather than dispensing through CuraVerto's own Pharmacy add-on, the H1 register obligation sits with that external pharmacy. CuraVerto's prescription record is not a substitute for the seller's own register.
Digital Rx and the registration-number field are on every plan. Audit-log visibility is on ART and HMS.
The Pharmacy module, including the Schedule H/H1 Drug Register report, is included in every plan and switched on per clinic, built for clinics dispensing on site rather than sending patients to an outside chemist.
Both can only be sold against a Registered Medical Practitioner's prescription, under Rule 65(9)(a) of the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945. Schedule H1 is a narrower list added in 2013 covering certain third and fourth generation antibiotics, habit-forming drugs, and anti-TB drugs, and it adds obligations Schedule H alone does not: the seller must keep a separate register of every H1 sale and generally retain the original prescription rather than return it to the patient.
At minimum: the prescribing doctor's name and registration number, the date, identification of the patient, the name, strength, dose and duration of the drug, and the doctor's signature, physical or digital. This baseline does not change because the prescription was generated digitally instead of handwritten.
Three years, and they have to be open for inspection. The obligation sits with whoever sells the drug at retail, typically a pharmacist, and covers the prescriber's name and address, the patient's name, the drug name, and the quantity supplied, logged in a separate H1 register at the time of sale.
The channel a prescription is delivered through is a separate question from whether the document itself is valid. What matters for Schedule H and H1 purposes is whether the required fields, prescriber registration number, date, patient identification, drug details, and signature, are present and legible, on paper or on screen. See CuraVerto's separate piece on what has to be on a prescription sent over WhatsApp for the delivery-channel side of this.
No, and it is worth being direct about that. Software can make sure a prescription cannot be created without a prescriber registration number, that every prescription is tied to a specific dated patient record, and that dispensing records exist for later inspection. It cannot exercise clinical judgement about whether a given drug is right for a given patient, and it does not verify that a doctor's registration is currently valid with their State Medical Council. That remains the doctor's responsibility.
Digital Rx with the mandatory prescriber registration-number field is on every CuraVerto plan, starting with the CMS plan at ₹25,000 per year. The Schedule H/H1 Drug Register report, generated from dispensing records, is part of CuraVerto's in-house Pharmacy module, which is included in every plan and is for clinics dispensing on site rather than sending patients to an outside chemist.
Digital Rx with a mandatory prescriber registration number and WhatsApp delivery is on every CuraVerto plan, starting with the CMS plan at ₹25,000 per year. The in-house Pharmacy module, which generates the Schedule H/H1 drug register report, is included in every plan for clinics dispensing on site.
Prefer not to use WhatsApp? Leave your number and we will call.