Formulary is a manual containing clinically oriented summaries of pharmacological information about selected drugs. The manual may also include administrative and regulatory information pertaining to the prescribing and dispensing of drugs. A national formulary generally concentrates on available and affordable medicines that are relevant to the treatment of diseases in a particular country. Formularies are also frequently created for different levels of health care, different sectors and for individual hospitals.
The first, second and third editions of National Formulary of India (NFI) were published in 1960, 1966 and 1979 respectively by the Ministry of Health, Govt. of India. In the past 3 decades there has been vast expansion in the range of new drugs and their formulations. To address the need of publication of an updated version of NFI, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Govt. of India vide their Notification No. F.No.X.11035/2/06- DFQC dated 8th May, 2008 assigned this mandatory responsibility to the Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission (IPC), Ghaziabad and hence the NFI is being published by the IPC on behalf of the Govt. of India, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. This National Formulary has been adopted from the WHO Model Formulary and thoroughly updated for its content, especially keeping in view the end user in India.
NFI 4th Edition 2011 can be seen on http://www.cdsco.nic.in/writereaddata/NFI_2011%20(1).pdf
References-
http://www.who.int/medicines/services/essmedicines_def/en/
http://www.cdsco.nic.in/forms/contentpage1.aspx?lid=1423
http://apps.who.int/medicinedocs/pdf/s6171e/s6171e.pdf
