What exactly is a DRAP import NOC?

A one-off permission for a single consignment of a medical device that is not registered or enlisted with DRAP — the route a hospital, a donation, a personal import or a trial quantity uses instead of standing registration.

Do we need a full establishment licence, or does an NOC cover us?

It depends on the device. A company importing devices as an ongoing business needs the establishment licence, with each device registered or enlisted against it. An NOC is for a device outside that catalogue, for one shipment.

Does DRAP have anything to do with the cosmetics we import?

Only if there is a medicinal claim on the label — medicated shampoos and soaps sit with DRAP. An ordinary cosmetic with no such claim is PSQCA's business.

What happens if the NOC application goes in after the shipment has already sailed?

The goods reach the port before DRAP's decision does. The declaration cannot be finished around an application still under review, so the consignment sits in the terminal until the NOC is issued.

Is there a fee for the NOC?

A personal-use NOC carries no fee under DRAP's current schedule. An institutional application, for a hospital or donation programme, can carry one under the same schedule.

Does a device that is already registered with DRAP still need an NOC for every shipment?

No. A registered or enlisted device imports against that registration and the importer's establishment licence. The NOC route is only for devices outside that registered catalogue.

Who actually applies for the NOC — us, or the hospital or institution bringing the goods in?

The application goes in under the name of whoever the device is for — the hospital, the institution, the individual. We prepare the file and the paperwork behind it and handle the declaration once the NOC is issued.

Guides · DRAP

A DRAP import NOC covers one shipment. An establishment licence covers the business.

Q: We read that medical device NOCs are now processed on the Pakistan Single Window. Is that right?

Not as far as DRAP's own site shows. Drugs moved onto PSW, at Karachi's seaport and airport stations. Medical device establishment licence and NOC applications still go through DRAP's own portal. Check DRAP's site directly before relying on anything else.

Shafiq Traders · Updated 14 September 2026

DRAP is the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan, and its remit is therapeutic goods: drugs, medical devices, and medicated cosmetics, shampoos and soaps. An ordinary cosmetic with no medicinal claim on the label answers to the Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority, not DRAP. An establishment licence and an import NOC are not the same document. The establishment licence is what lets a company import medical devices as a business, against a catalogue of devices registered or enlisted with DRAP, and it runs five years before it needs renewing. The NOC is a one-off permission for a single consignment of a device that is not registered or enlisted — a hospital bringing in equipment it needs now, a donation, a personal-use item, a trial quantity. Apply for that NOC before the goods ship. Apply after, and the consignment reaches the port with nothing yet on file to release it against.

What DRAP controls, and the two documents it issues

DRAP's jurisdiction is therapeutic goods: drugs, medical devices, and medicated cosmetics, shampoos and soaps. Ordinary cosmetics and toiletries with no medicinal claim are PSQCA's business, not DRAP's — a shampoo becomes DRAP's problem the moment the label says it treats something.

Within medical devices, DRAP issues two different permissions and does not treat them as interchangeable. An establishment licence authorises a company to import or manufacture medical devices as an ongoing business, tied to the devices that company has registered or enlisted with DRAP. An import NOC — DRAP calls it a special permission — authorises one consignment of a device that sits outside that registered catalogue: unregistered equipment a hospital or institution needs directly, a donation from a government or NGO source, a personal-use item, or a small quantity brought in for test, trial or analysis.

A device already registered or enlisted under somebody's establishment licence does not need a fresh NOC every time it ships. The NOC exists for the goods that route works around, not the goods it covers.

Establishment licence against import NOC

From DRAP's Medical Devices Establishment Licences and Special Permissions pages. Checked 14 September 2026.
	Establishment licence	Import NOC
Who holds it	The importer or manufacturer, as a company	Whoever is bringing in that one consignment — a hospital, an institution, a donor, an individual
What it authorises	Importing medical devices as a business, against a catalogue registered or enlisted with DRAP	One specific consignment of a device outside that registered catalogue
How long it runs	Five years, unless revoked or suspended earlier	That shipment only — a new application for the next one
Typical holder	A distributor or manufacturer with a standing catalogue of devices	A hospital buying equipment it needs now, a donation programme, a personal import, a trial quantity

Applying for an import NOC, in order

The declaration cannot be built around an application that is still sitting with DRAP.

File the special permission application with DRAP

Through DRAP's Personal Use online service for an individual, or direct with the Medical Devices Division for a hospital or institution, naming the device, the quantity and why it falls outside the registered route.

Supply what a registration would otherwise have supplied

Since the device is not registered or enlisted, DRAP wants the manufacturer's documentation and specification in the application itself, not referenced against a file it already holds.

Wait for DRAP's decision

The Medical Devices Division reviews the application on its own timeline. A personal-use NOC carries no fee under DRAP's current schedule; an institutional application can.

File the Goods Declaration once the NOC is issued

The declaration references the NOC the way a routine import references the device's registration. There is nothing to reference until DRAP has decided.

What is actually on the Pakistan Single Window, and what is not

Reports through 2026 describe medical device import NOCs moving onto the Pakistan Single Window. Checked against DRAP's own site, that had not happened as this page was written. What has moved to PSW is drugs — import licences, clearance certificates for raw materials and finished medicines, release orders for donated medicines — and only at Karachi's seaport and airport customs stations.

Medical device establishment licence and NOC applications still go through DRAP's own portal, the Digital System for Licensing & Registration of Medical Devices, which the Prime Minister opened in Islamabad in mid-2025. If somebody tells you a device NOC files on PSW today, check DRAP's site yourself before booking the shipment against it.

Where the file actually stalls

A registered device moves like any other import: the declaration references the establishment licence and the device's own registration, and customs assesses it on that basis. An NOC consignment has nothing to reference until DRAP has ruled on the application.

That is the point a shipment stalls. If the NOC application goes in after the container is loaded, the goods reach the port before the decision does, and the declaration cannot be finished around a file that is still open. The goods sit in the terminal, accruing storage, while the application works through DRAP's queue on its own schedule — a schedule the ship's arrival does not move.

What a personal-use NOC actually costs

One category is free under DRAP's own fee schedule. An institutional application is not automatically the same.

Personal-use import or export NOCNo feeon Filed through DRAP's Personal Use online service · DRAP Schedule of Regulatory Fees

Checked 14 September 2026 against Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan — Regulatory Fees. Rates move at the budget and by SRO in between, so confirm the current figure with us before you price a consignment on it.

We cannot get DRAP to open your NOC file sooner because the container is already loaded. That decision moves at DRAP's pace, not the ship's, and an application filed after the goods sail reaches the port with nothing to show for it. If your device is not registered or enlisted and the NOC has not gone in yet, we will tell you before you book the shipment, not after it is sitting in the terminal.

Questions

What importers ask about the DRAP import NOC

Contact

Tell us what is coming.

Give us the product, the port and roughly when the vessel is due, and we will tell you what the clearance involves and what it will cost.

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