What UCPMP 2024 does not govern, and what people assume it does

Why this page exists

Each item below is commonly treated as a UCPMP requirement and is not one. They are recorded here because a requirement that does not exist costs a brand team real time. Copy gets rewritten, artwork gets redone, and a house convention gets defended in review as though it were law.

The Rx symbol

It appears nowhere in UCPMP 2024. The prescription symbols are label requirements under Rule 97 of the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules 1945. Rule 97 prescribes Rx for Schedule H and Rx in red for Schedule H1. It prescribes NRx in red for Schedule H drugs under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act 1985, and XRx in red for Schedule X. Schedule H, H1 and X status is not only a labelling matter, though. The same Rules make it a manufacturing licence condition that those drugs are not advertised without the previous sanction of the Central Government. The condition sits in Rules 74(p) and 78(q) and parallel provisions. Marking Rx on a detailing deck is a widespread and sensible convention, and it is not a requirement of the Code.

Schedule H, H1 and X label warnings

These are warnings that Rule 97 prescribes for the label of the medicine's container. Only the Schedule H1 warning is prescribed 'in a box with a red border'; the Schedule H and Schedule X warnings are prescribed wording without a box. Clause 3.2(iv) does require 'adverse reactions, warnings, precautions for use and relevant contraindications'. Those are the product's own safety information. Clause 3.2 does not list the statutory schedule legends prescribed for the label. Many companies still carry the warning on the final panel as a precaution. That is a company choice, and the Code does not require it. Recording it as house practice keeps a missing warning on a deck from being raised as a legal defect.

Font sizes

Clause 3.2 requires the information to be given 'legibly' and to be 'an integral part' of the material. No point size appears anywhere in the Code. An 8pt or 12pt minimum is a house MLR standard.

Generic-name size parity

Clause 3.2(ii) requires the generic name 'placed immediately adjacent to the most prominent display of the name of the drug'. Adjacency is the requirement, and UCPMP 2024 sets no size relationship for promotional material. Labels are different. On the label, Rule 96(1)(i)(A) of the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules 1945 governs the proper name of the drug. It must be 'printed or written in a more conspicuous manner than the trade name'. That is a label rule. UCPMP 2024 sets no such requirement for promotional material.

CDSCO notices on promotion

CDSCO does issue notices on promotion, so a team should not assume it is silent. On 27 March 2026 the Drugs Controller General (India) wrote to all State and Union Territory Drug Controllers. The subject was 'Strengthening Enforcement against Unauthorized Promotion and Distribution of GLP-1 Based Drugs'. It asks them to watch for 'non-compliant advertisements or surrogate promotional activities relating to these drugs'.

It asks that 'appropriate action' be initiated under the Drugs and Magic Remedies Act 1954 and the Drugs and Cosmetics Act 1940 and its Rules. The notices we have read apply those existing Acts and Rules. They do not set a separate advertising code for medicines.