On this page 14 sections
To start a supplement brand in Pakistan, you choose a small range of products, have them made under your brand by a DRAP-enlisted manufacturer, enlist each product with DRAP's Health and OTC Division, and clear your advertising with DRAP before it runs. The government fee for enlisting a locally made health product is Rs 6,300, and with a private label manufacturer you can start from 500 pieces per product.
Dermis & Dosis makes private label supplements in Lahore: tablets, capsules, chewables, syrups and oral shots, from formulas we already manufacture for other brands. This guide walks through the whole route, from the first products you choose to the day your first advertisement is allowed to run. The money is rarely what holds a launch up; the order you do things in is.
The route at a glance
| Step | What it involves | Who does it |
|---|---|---|
| Choose the range | Three to five products for one kind of customer, from a catalogue or developed with you | You, with us |
| Protect the name | Trademark application with IPO Pakistan, in your name | You |
| Samples and artwork | Format, flavour, pack, and a printed label and carton | Us, approved by you |
| DRAP product file | Form 3 for each product, Rs 6,300 each | Us |
| Production | From 500 pieces per product, with a certificate of analysis for every batch | Us |
| Advertising | Written permission from DRAP's Advertisement Board before any advertisement runs | You, in the wording of your label |
What counts as a supplement in Pakistan
In Pakistani law a vitamin tablet is neither a medicine nor an ordinary food. The DRAP Act 2012 lists "nutritional products" and "food supplements" among health and OTC products (non-drugs), alongside probiotics and medicated cosmetics. The Alternative Medicines and Health Products (Enlistment) Rules 2014 set out how those products are enlisted, and DRAP's Health and OTC Division runs the process. The industry calls them nutraceuticals, and so do DRAP's own application queues.
Two things decide whether a product stays a supplement. The first is what goes in: allopathic drug substances, steroids and anabolic hormones are prohibited substances under the Enlistment Rules, so a formula containing one is not a supplement at all. The second is what the label promises: a product that claims to prevent or reduce a disease is filed on Form 4 and needs more evidence than one with a nutritional or general-health claim, which is filed on Form 3.
Step 1: Choose who the brand is for, then three to five products
A supplement brand sells trust before it sells tablets, so start with the customer, not the ingredient list. A dermatologist's patients, a gym's members, women planning a pregnancy and a pharmacy's walk-in customers want different things, and believe different voices.
Then keep the first range small. Every product is its own DRAP file, its own minimum order and its own artwork, so three to five products that belong together launch faster, and cost less, than twelve that do not. You can add the next product once the first ones are being reordered.
Search demand is a sensible place to look. Google's suggestions for Pakistan, checked in October 2026, show people looking for magnesium, iron, zinc, biotin and multivitamin brands, for glutathione and collagen, and for "nutraceutical companies in Pakistan" by name. That measures interest, not sales, but it shows where customers are already looking. Ranges that fit together from our catalogue:
- Hair, skin and nails: biotin 2,500 mcg tablets, glutathione 500 mg capsules and vitamin C 500 mg chewables, which sit naturally beside a skincare range.
- Everyday wellness: a multivitamin and mineral capsule, vitamin B complex with C and zinc, and magnesium glycinate 500 mg tablets.
- Before and during pregnancy, as a doctor advises: L-methylfolate 400 mcg, iron bisglycinate and calcium with vitamin D3 and K2.
- Focus and vitality: ginkgo and ginseng capsules and CoQ10 with L-arginine.
- Beauty from within: ready-to-drink collagen shots and glutathione shots, covered in our guide to private label collagen shots.
Step 2: A catalogue formula, or your own
There are two ways to get a formula. A catalogue formula is one we already manufacture for other brands, made under your name and logo, in your pack. It is the quickest route, because the formula, its specifications and its test methods already exist, and those are most of a DRAP file.
A custom formula is developed from your brief: your actives, your doses, your flavour. It suits a doctor with a protocol of their own, or a brand that needs a product nobody else sells, and it adds development and stability work before the file can go in. Most first ranges mix the two: catalogue formulas for the everyday products, and one custom-formulated hero product once the brand is selling. Our guide to private label, white label and custom formulation sets out the trade-offs.
Step 3: Choose the format and the pack
The format changes the dose you can fit, the taste, the packaging and the price on the shelf, so choose it product by product rather than for the whole range.
| Format | Suits | What to decide |
|---|---|---|
| Tablets | Vitamins and minerals at everyday doses: magnesium, biotin, B complex, folate | Bottle or blister, and the count per pack, such as 30, 60 or 120 |
| Capsules | Powders and plant extracts: multivitamins, glutathione, ginkgo and ginseng | Gelatin or plant shell, and capsules per dose |
| Chewable tablets | Customers who dislike swallowing tablets: vitamin C, calcium | Flavour and sweetness |
| Syrups | Customers who prefer a liquid: iron, calcium with magnesium, multivitamins | Bottle size, measuring cup and flavour |
| Oral shots | One ready-to-drink daily dose: collagen, glutathione, vitamin D3 | Packs of 5 or 15, and flavour |
Decide the capsule shell early. Hard capsules are made from gelatin, which is animal-derived, or from a plant cellulose such as HPMC. For customers in Pakistan the gelatin has to be Halal-sourced, and a plant shell lets you call the product vegetarian. Tell us which your customers expect and we confirm the shell before we quote.
Labels and cartons are designed and printed in-house at Dermis & Dosis Print, with the batch number and dates on every pack.
Step 4: Protect the brand name before you print
Register your brand name and logo as a trademark with IPO Pakistan, in your own name, before anything is printed or filed. Each DRAP file carries your brand name, and changing a brand name after enlistment is a variation that costs Rs 19,900 under the 2025 fee schedule, on top of reprinting every label. The trademark is also the one asset that stays yours, whoever manufactures for you.
Step 5: DRAP enlistment, step by step
Supplements are enlisted, not registered. Under the 2014 Rules, enlistment is a provisional number in DRAP's register that authorises the product to be made and sold. A locally made supplement with nutritional, general-health or structure-function claims is filed on Form 3, which asks for:
- The product profile: brand name, ingredients with their strengths, recommended use, pack size and proposed retail price
- The master formula and the manufacturing process
- Testing specifications for the raw materials and the finished product
- Shelf life, storage conditions and directions for use
- The packaging and label artwork
- A notarised undertaking, and the fee receipt from DRAP's online challan system
Notice the retail price in that list. DRAP asks for the maximum retail price in the file, so decide what each product will sell for before the file goes in, not after the first stock arrives. Everything else on the list except the undertaking is manufacturer-side work, and we prepare it during development so the file is ready when you approve the sample.
In the most common structure, the enlisted manufacturer holds the product enlistment under your brand name, you own the trademark, and a private-label agreement records that the brand is yours. Our guide to DRAP enlistment explains why, and when a brand owner can apply as contract giver instead.
The government fees under S.R.O. 1399(I)/2025, in force since 1 August 2025:
- Enlistment of a locally manufactured health product: Rs 6,300 per product
- A miscellaneous variation, such as an extra pack size or a change of packing material: Rs 3,100
- A change of brand name: Rs 19,900
- Renewal of a product enlistment: half the initial fee
Fees are not refundable, so a wrong file is not a free retry. DRAP publishes no fixed timeline for enlistment and processes files first come, first served, so plan for several months and let samples, artwork and printing run while the file waits.
What changed in October 2026
On 6 October 2026 DRAP issued S.R.O. 1688(I)/2026. As reported by APP and other outlets, it notifies eight categories of health and OTC products, vitamins and dietary supplements among them, as therapeutic goods under the DRAP Act, and reports describe stricter registration and quality-control requirements to follow. At the time of writing, DRAP had published no new rules, fees or deadlines with it.
For a brand starting now, that changes the direction of travel more than the paperwork. Enlistment under the 2014 Rules is still how a supplement reaches the market, and we check the current position with DRAP before each file goes in. It does make one thing plain: supplements sit squarely under DRAP's rules for therapeutic goods, and that includes the rules on advertising.
What a supplement label can say
Supplement wording says what a nutrient does for the body's normal function. It does not promise to fix a condition, and that difference decides both the DRAP form you file and whether your advertising is cleared.
- Workable: "magnesium supports normal muscle function"; "biotin supports normal hair and skin"; "iron supports normal red blood cell formation"; "vitamin D helps the body absorb calcium"; "500 mg per tablet".
- Not workable: "controls diabetes", "lowers blood pressure", "burns fat", "boosts fertility", "increases height", "whitening", or results promised in a set number of days.
Two products need particular care. Glutathione is sold as an antioxidant supplement, never as skin lightening, even though shoppers search for exactly that. And a weight-management product, such as our garcinia capsules, is positioned alongside a balanced diet and exercise, never instead of them.
DRAP reviews the label as part of the file, so the label you print has to match the file you filed. Our guide to label requirements in Pakistan covers batch numbers, dates and the manufacturer's details.
Advertising: DRAP's permission before the first post
This is the step new supplement brands miss most often. Under the Therapeutic Goods (Advertisement) Rules 2025 (S.R.O. 68(I)/2025, 27 January 2025), no one may advertise a therapeutic good without prior written permission from DRAP's Advertisement Board, and the Rules name health and OTC products among those the Board decides on. An advertisement is defined broadly, as anything aimed at promoting a product's supply, availability, sale or use, including announcements made by light or sound, so plan on a sponsored post, a reel and an influencer video all counting.
- A separate application for each advertisement and each product, with a fee.
- An approval lasts two years, unless it is withdrawn sooner.
- No comparison with another product, and no superlatives such as "the most potent" or "effective in all cases".
- Nothing that encourages self-medication, chronic use, or use to an extent that endangers health.
So put the advertising application in the launch plan, with the copy written in the same supplement wording as the label. A brand that writes its first advertisements the week stock arrives is a brand that launches without any. The wording helps twice: Instagram and Facebook also reject supplement ads that promise visible results.
What it costs, and what drives it
We do not publish a price per bottle, because it depends on the formula, the dose, the format and the quantity, and a number that is wrong for your product is worse than none. What drives it:
- The actives and the dose: a 500 mg glutathione capsule costs more to fill than a vitamin C tablet, and the dose matters more than the name on the front.
- The format: syrups and shots need bottles and weigh more to ship; tablets and capsules pack small.
- The pack: bottle, blister or carton, and the print finish.
- The quantity: minimums are per product and per pack size, so one product in two sizes is two minimums.
- Government fees: Rs 6,300 per product enlistment, small next to the stock itself.
Our guide to starting a skincare brand in Pakistan breaks down the same cost lines in more detail, and most of them apply to supplements unchanged.
Who starts supplement brands with us
- Doctors and clinics whose patients ask what to take, and who would rather it carried their name. Our For Doctors page explains the brand-owner side, and this guide the business case.
- Pharmacies building a label of their own.
- Skincare brands adding a beauty-from-within product to sell beside their serums.
- Nutritionists and fitness coaches with an audience that already asks them for recommendations.
- E-commerce sellers who want a product customers reorder every month.
How private label supplements work with us
- Free consultation: who the brand is for, the first products, the formats and your price point.
- Formula and samples: catalogue formulas, or one developed with you, sampled before you order.
- Brand and artwork: your trademark, and labels and cartons designed and printed in-house.
- DRAP file: prepared by us for each product.
- Production: from 500 pieces per product, in any format, with a certificate of analysis for every batch.
- Delivery: to any city in Pakistan.
- Your launch: once your advertisements, written in the same wording as the label, have DRAP's permission.
See the full private label supplements range, or send your product list through the quote form.
Questions brands ask
Do I need my own factory to start a supplement brand in Pakistan?
No. A DRAP-enlisted manufacturer makes the products under your brand. In the most common structure the manufacturer holds the product enlistment and you own the trademark, with a private-label agreement between you.
What is the minimum order for private label supplements?
500 pieces per product, in any format: tablets, capsules, chewables, syrups or shots.
How much does DRAP enlistment cost for a supplement?
Rs 6,300 for each locally manufactured health product, under the fee schedule in force since 1 August 2025. Renewal costs half the initial fee, and fees are not refundable.
How long does DRAP enlistment take?
DRAP publishes no fixed timeline and processes files first come, first served. Plan for several months, and run samples, artwork and printing in parallel so nothing waits on the file.
Can I advertise my supplement on Instagram or Facebook?
Only once that advertisement has DRAP's written permission. The Therapeutic Goods (Advertisement) Rules 2025 require a separate application to DRAP's Advertisement Board for each advertisement and each product, and an approval lasts two years.
Can a supplement label say it whitens skin or helps with weight loss?
Not as a promise. Glutathione is sold as an antioxidant, and a weight-management product is positioned alongside diet and exercise. Labels name what a nutrient does for the body's normal function, such as "biotin supports normal hair and skin".
Can I visit before I order?
Yes. Book a tour of our Lahore facility, or start with a free consultation.
