Act · 2024 Revised Edition · 9 parts
Medicines Act
Control of medicinal and cosmetic products from import to saleIn plain English
Not legal adviceThe Medicines Act regulates the import, registration, promotion, advertising, clinical trials, transport, manufacture, storage, dispensing and sale of medicinal products and cosmetic products. The Poisons Act does not apply to poisons in medicinal products or used for medicinal purposes, where this Act regulates them. The authority may exempt some people and institutions from certain requirements, including for research, teaching, clinical trials and treating life-threatening illness. Certain restrictions do not apply to some supplies by medical practitioners, dentists, hospitals and veterinary surgeons, or to some herbal remedy sales.
Summary · Drafted with AI, checked against the official text on 30 Sep 2026.
Part
Preliminary
Official textFrom Attorney General's Chambers, unchanged
This Act may be cited as the Medicines Act.
This Act shall commence on such date as the Minister may, with the approval of His Majesty the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan, appoint by notification published in the Gazette, and the Minister may —
appoint one commencement date for medicinal products and a different commencement date for cosmetic products;
appoint different commencement dates for different groups of products;
appoint different commencement dates for different provisions of this Act; or
adopt any combination of the foregoing alternatives.
In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires —
“administration” means giving or applying to a human being or an animal, whether orally, by injection or by introduction into the body in any other way, or by external application, whether by direct contact with the body or not; and any reference in this Act
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to administering a substance or article is a reference to administering it either in its existing state or after it has been dissolved or dispersed in, or diluted or mixed with, some other substance used as a vehicle;
“analysis” includes micro-biological assay;
“animal” includes any bird, fish, reptile or amphibian;
“Authority” means the Brunei Darussalam Medicines Control
Authority established under section 5;
“clinical trial” means an investigation or series of investigations on persons conducted by or under the direction and supervision of persons with scientific training or experience for the purpose of finding out about, or determining the safety, effectiveness and other effects of any product;
“clinical trial import licence” has the meaning ascribed to it by sections 11 and 15, and includes any provisional licence under section 17;
“composition”, in relation to a medicinal product, means the ingredients of which it consists and the proportions, and the degrees of strength, quality and purity, in which those ingredients are respectively contained in it;
“container”, in relation to a medicinal product, means the bottle, jar, box, packet or other receptacle which contains or is to contain it, not being a capsule, cachet or other article in which the product is or is to be administered, and where any such receptacle is or is to be contained in another such receptacle, includes the former but does not include the latter receptacle;
“contract manufacturer” means any person who manufactures any product on the order of another person to whom a manufacturer’s licence has been issued under section 15.
“cosmetic product” means any substance or preparation intended to be placed in contact with the various external parts of the human body (epidermis, hair system, nails, lips and external genital organs) or with the teeth and the mucous membranes of the oral cavity with a view exclusively or mainly to cleaning them, perfuming them, changing their appearance and correcting body odours, protecting them or keeping them in good condition or all or any of those purposes;
Medicines
“dentist”
means a dentist registered under the
Medical Practitioners and Dentists Act (Chapter 112);
“disease” includes any injury, ailment or adverse condition, whether of body or mind;
“herbal remedy” means a medicinal product consisting of a substance produced by subjecting a plant or plants to drying, crushing or comminuting or other process, or of a mixture whose ingredients are two or more substances so produced, or of a combination of such mixture with water or such other inert substances as the Authority may, by notification published in the
Gazette, specify;
“homeopathic medicine” means any pharmaceutical dosage form used in the homeopathic therapeutic system in which diseases are treated by the use of minute amounts of such substances which are capable of producing in healthy persons symptoms similar to those of the disease being treated;
“hospital” includes any institution for the reception and treatment of the sick and designated as a hospital by the Minister for the purposes of this Act;
“import licence” has the meaning ascribed to it by sections 11
and 15, and includes any provisional licence under section 17;
“indigenous medicine” means a system of treatment and prevention of disease established through traditional use of naturally occurring substances;
“ingredient”, in relation to manufacture or preparation of a product, includes any substance of that product as manufactured or prepared;
“inspector” means an inspector appointed under section 58(1);
“labelling”, in relation to a container or package of medicinal products, means affixing to or otherwise displaying on it a notice describing or otherwise relating to the contents;
“licence” means a licence issued under this Act;
“licensed importer” means a person to whom an import licence has been issued under this Act;
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“licensed manufacturer”
means a person to whom a manufacturer’s licence has been issued under this Act, and includes a contract manufacturer;
“licensed wholesaler” means a person to whom a wholesaler’s licence has been issued under this Act;
“leaflets” include any written information;
“manufacture”, in relation to any product includes —
the making or assembling of the product;
the enclosing or packing of the product in any container in a form suitable for administration or application, and the labelling of the container; and
the carrying out of any process in the course of any of the foregoing activities, but does not include dissolving or dispersing the product in, or diluting or mixing it with, some substance used as a vehicle for the purpose of administering it;
“manufacturer’s licence” has the meaning ascribed to it by sections 11 and 15, and includes any provisional licence under section 17;
“medical practitioner” means a medical practitioner registered under the Medical Practitioners and Dentists Act (Chapter 112);
“medicinal product” has the meaning ascribed to it by section 4;
“medicine” means any substance or combination of substances presented for treating or preventing disease in human beings or animals. Any substance or combination of substances which may be administered to human beings or animals with a view to making a medical diagnosis or to restoring, correcting or modifying physiological functions in human beings or in animals is likewise considered a “medicine”;
“midwife” means a midwife registered under the Midwives Act
(Chapter 139);
“Minister” means the Minister of Health;
“nurse” means a nurse registered under the Nurses Registration
Act (Chapter 140);
Medicines
“pharmacist”
means a person registered under the
Pharmacists Registration Order, 2001 (S 21/2001);
“plant” includes any part of a plant;
“practitioner” means a medical practitioner, dentist or veterinary surgeon;
“product licence” has the meaning ascribed to it by sections 11
and 15, and includes any provisional licence under section 17;
“registered medicinal product” means a product registered in accordance with the provisions of this Act;
“registered pharmacy” means premises entered in the register under section 39(1);
“retail pharmacy business” means a business (not being a professional practice carried out by a practitioner) which consists of or includes the retail sale of medicinal products other than medicinal products on a general sale list;
“retail sale”, in relation to a medicinal product, has the meaning ascribed to it by subsection (2)(b);
“sell” includes barter, and also includes offering or attempting to sell, or receiving for sale, or having in possession for sale, or exposing for sale, or sending or delivering for sale, or causing or allowing to be sold, offered or exposed for sale;
“substance” means any natural or artificial substance whether in solid or liquid form or in the form of gas or vapour;
“supply” includes having in possession for the purpose of supply;
“treatment”, in relation to disease, includes anything done or provided for alleviating the effects of the disease, whether it is done or provided by way of cure or not;
“traditional medicine” means any product used in the practice of indigenous medicine, in which the medicine consist solely of one or more naturally occurring substances of a plant, animal or mineral, of parts thereof, in the unextracted or crude extract form, and a homeopathic medicine;
“veterinary surgeon” means a person registered under the
Veterinary Surgeons Order, 2005 (S 30/2005);
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“wholesale dealing”, in relation to a medicinal product, shall have the meaning ascribed to it under subsection (2);
“wholesaler’s licence” has the meaning ascribed to it by sections 11 and 15, and includes any provisional licence under section 17.
In this Act, any reference to —
selling by way of wholesale dealing is a reference to selling to a person who buys it for the purpose of selling or supplying it in the course of a business carried on by that person, except that it does not include any such sale by the person who manufactured it;
selling by retail, or to retail sale is a reference to selling a substance or article to a person as being a person who buys it otherwise than for a purpose specified in paragraph (a); and
supplying anything in circumstances corresponding to retail sale is a reference to supplying it, otherwise than by way of sale, to a person as being a person who receives it for a purpose other than that of selling or supplying.
s 3Non-application of Chapter 114 to medicinal products or substances
Nothing in the Poisons Act (Chapter 114), applies to any poison which is incorporated in a medicinal product or used as a substance for a medicinal purpose and which is regulated by the provisions of this Act.
Subject to the following provisions of this section, in this Act
“medicinal product” means any substance or article (not being an instrument, apparatus or appliance) which is manufactured, sold, supplied, imported or exported for use wholly or mainly in either or both of the following ways —
use by being administered to one or more human beings or animals for a medicinal purpose;
use as an ingredient in the preparation of a substance or article which is to be administered to one or more human beings or animals for a medicinal purpose.
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In this Act, “a medicinal purpose” means any one or more of the following purposes —
treating or preventing disease;
diagnosing disease or ascertaining the existence, degree or extent of a physiological condition;
contraception;
inducing anaesthesia;
otherwise preventing or interfering with the normal operation of a physiological function, whether permanently or temporarily, and whether by way terminating, reducing or postponing, or increasing or accelerating, the operation of that function or in any other way.
Notwithstanding anything in subsection (1), in this Act
“medicinal product” does not include any substance or article which is manufactured for use wholly or mainly by being administered to one or more human beings or animals, where it is to be administered to them —
in the course of the business of the manufacturer or on behalf of the manufacturer in the course of the business of laboratory or research established carried on by another person;
solely by way of a test for ascertaining what effects it has when so administered; and
in circumstances where the manufacturer has no knowledge of any evidence that those effects are likely to be beneficial to those human beings, or beneficial to, or otherwise advantageous in relation to, those animals, as the case may be, and which (having been so manufactured) is not sold, supplied or exported for use wholly or mainly in any way not fulfilling all the conditions specified in paragraphs (a), (b) and (c).
In this Act, “medicinal product” does not include —
substances used in dental surgery for filling dental cavities;
bandages and other surgical dressings, except medicated dressings where the medication has a palliative or
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curative function which is not limited to sterilising the dressings;
substances and articles of such other description or classes as may be specified by order made by the Minister.
Where in accordance with subsections (1) to (4), a substance or article is a medicinal product immediately after it has been manufactured, imported or exported as mentioned in subsection (1), or immediately after the first occasion on which it has been sold or supplied as mentioned in that subsection, then it shall not cease to be a medicinal product for the purposes of this Act by reason only that, at any subsequent time, it is sold, supplied, imported or exported for the use wholly or mainly in a way other than those specified in subsection (1).
For the purposes of this Act, medicinal products are of the same description if —
they are manufactured to the same specification;
manufacturing methods and processes; equipment and manufacturing plant; and
they are, are to be, sold, supplied, imported or exported in the same pharmaceutical form.
For the purposes of this Act, a document, advertisement or representation shall be taken to be likely to mislead as the uses or effects of medicinal products of a particular description if it is likely to mislead as to any of the following matters —
any purposes for which medicinal products of that description can with reasonable safety be used;
any purposes for which such products cannot be so used; and
any effects which such products when used, or when used in any particular way referred to in the document, advertisement or representation, produce or are intended to produce.
Medicines
Part
Brunei Darussalam Medicines Control Authority
Part
Registration and Licensing
Part
Clinical Trials
Part
Sales and Other Dealings of Medicinal Products
Part
Pharmacies
Part
Containers, Packages and Identification of Medicinal Products
Part
Promotion of Sales of Medicinal Products and Medical Advertisements
Part