MAL No.

Introduction

Before being marketed in Malaysia, all pharmaceutical products including health supplements and traditional preparations must be registered with the Drug Control Authority. Registered products will have 2 key features.

Users can check the registration status of a product through the Quest 3+ or by contacting the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency at 03-78835400.



Format of MAL

A valid registration number starts with "MAL", followed by 8-digit numbers and ends with an alphabet to indicate their registration category.

  • The first 2 digits correspond to the year of registration, the next 2 digits corresponds to the month of registration and followed by 4 digits of running numbers.

NOTE: Notification number is unique for each cosmetic product and its variant (if any) in the format as below: NOTyymmxxxxxK (y: year, m: month, x: serial number).



Categories of Registered Product

The categories of registered product are as follows:

  • A: Controlled medicines
  • X: Over the counter medicines (OTC)
  • T: Natural Products/ Traditional Medicines
  • N: Health Supplements
  • H: Veterinary Products



Administrative Codes

In addition, there may be administrative codes used by the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency after the product category. The administrative code is

  • C: Contract Manufactured (the product is manufactured by a GMP certified contract manufacturer)
  • E: For Export Only (FEO) (the product is to be sold for export only and not for sale in the local market)
  • R: Packed and/or repacked (the product is packed and/or repacked by an approved GMP certified packer and/or repacker)
  • S: Second source (the product is from a second source/ approved second manufacturer)
  • Y: Orphan products
  • Z: Products gazetted as zero-rated under the Goods and Services Tax Act 2014, Goods and Services Tax (Zero-Rated Supplies) Order 2014.



FarmaTag Hologram

FarmaTag Hologram

Effective 1 September 2019, the Ministry of Health (MOH) Malaysia replaced the Meditag hologram with the FarmaTag hologram. This security label was designed to protect consumers from counterfeit medicines through several key features:

  • Consumers can use the FarmaChecker app to instantly verify the authenticity of their purchased medicines.
  • The app allows users to report unrecognized or suspicious labels immediately, from anywhere and at any time.

Features of FarmaTag Hologram

To further enhance product safety and integrity, the MOH introduced a new version of the FarmaTag hologram security label on 2 October 2025.

  • Verification for this new label will be integrated into the MyUBAT application.
  • While the new labels are already in circulation, the MyUBAT verification function will officially go live on 1 January 2026 following a scheduled application update.
  • The previous version of the FarmaTag hologram remains valid. Consumers should continue using the FarmaChecker app to verify these older labels.



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