What it is Watch it work Features FAQ Join the waitlist
A pharmacy in your pocket

Scan the box.
Understand the medicine.

دوا لینے سے پہلے، جان لیں کہ یہ ہے کیا

DawaLens is a free app that reads any medicine sold in Pakistan. Point your camera at the box, or type the name, and it tells you the active ingredients inside, what the medicine is commonly used for, the health alerts you should know about, the side effects, and every other brand made from the same ingredients.

Active ingredients Common uses Health alerts Side effects Same-ingredient brands

Launching 2026 · Android & iOS · English & اردو

Start here

What is DawaLens?

In Pakistan most people buy medicine without seeing a doctor. You describe the problem at the counter, you're handed a box, and that's the end of the conversation. DawaLens is the part of that conversation nobody has time for — it reads the box and explains it to you, in plain English or Urdu, before you take the first dose.

1

Scan it or search it

Hold the box in the camera frame, or type the name. Searching also works by symptom or by condition if you don't have the box in front of you.

2

See what's actually inside

The active ingredients and their strengths — the part that decides whether two differently-named boxes are the same medicine.

3

Read what it does and what to watch

Common uses, health alerts, and side effects, written to be understood rather than copied off the leaflet inside the carton.

4

Keep it in your profile

Your medicines, your conditions and everything you've scanned, saved in one place you can show to a doctor.

What DawaLens does

  • Identifies any registered medicine sold in Pakistan from the box or the name
  • Names the active ingredients and the strength of each one
  • Explains the common uses, health alerts and side effects in plain language
  • Lists other brands built from the same active ingredients
  • Reads it out and writes it in Urdu for anyone who needs it that way

What DawaLens is not

  • Not a doctor, and not a substitute for seeing one
  • Not a prescription service — it won't tell you what to take
  • Not a pharmacy, and not a shop. Nothing is for sale in the app
  • Not a diagnosis. Searching a symptom shows you information, not an answer
  • Not a replacement for the pharmacist's advice — it's what you read before you ask better questions
Watch it work

From opening the app to knowing what you're holding

Four steps, start to finish. It plays on its own — tap any step to jump straight to it.

22:23DawaLens

دواخانہ اب آپ کی جیب میں

Search Medicine
MedicinesSymptomsConditions
Search results

Align the medicine box within the frame

Searching for medicine

Searched
Verified Scan match 01/05
Panadol Tablets 500mg
(Paracetamol)
Central Nervous System · GSK Pakistan · Tablet
Uses
  • Fever
  • Headache, toothache and body aches
  • Period pain
Dosage
  • Adults: 1–2 tablets every 4–6 hours
  • Never more than 8 tablets in 24 hours
  • Can be taken with or without food
Warnings
  • Going over the daily limit damages the liver
  • Many cold and flu sachets already contain paracetamol — check before doubling up
  • Avoid regular use with alcohol or in liver disease

چوبیس گھنٹے میں آٹھ گولیوں سے زیادہ نہ لیں۔

Active ingredients
Paracetamol500 mg

Panadol Extra adds caffeine 65 mg to the same base.

Same ingredients
Panadol ExtraGSK PakistanTablet
Provas 500mgHighnoonTablet
CalpolGSK PakistanSuspension

Disclaimer: this information is for educational purposes. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before taking any medication.

Step one

The app opens

No sign-up screen, no ads, no upsell. It loads straight into the thing you came to do.

Step two

Type the name

Results narrow with every letter — each showing the manufacturer, the form and what it's primarily used for. You can also search by symptom or by the condition you're managing.

دوا کا نام، علامت یا مرض — تینوں سے تلاش کریں۔

Step three

Or hold the box in the camera

The reader picks the printed name and strength off the carton. Packaging here is inconsistent, so rather than pretend to one perfect answer it returns up to five ranked matches for you to confirm.

ڈبے کو فریم کے اندر رکھیں۔

Step four

The medicine, opened up

The pack you scanned at the top, and underneath it everything about what's in your hand — uses, dosage, warnings, the active ingredients and the other boxes carrying the same thing. Readable in Urdu, and saved to your profile in one tap.

استعمال، خوراک، احتیاط اور اجزاء — سب ایک جگہ۔

Step 1 of 4
Why we're building it

Most people here skip the doctor and go straight to the counter

It's faster, it's cheaper, and often it's the only option. The pharmacist hands over a box, says a price, and moves to the next customer. Nobody explains what's inside it.

What you ask for

سر، بخار کے لیے کچھ دے دیں

"Just give me something for the fever."

What you walk out with

A box you've never heard of, and a foil strip with the only real information printed in 5pt English on the back.

Ingredients never named Alerts never mentioned Side effects never discussed

Three questions almost nobody gets a straight answer to:

یہ دوا کس مرض کی ہے؟

"What is this even for?"

Two boxes can carry completely different names and hold the same thing. Without the ingredient names, nobody can tell what they actually bought.

کیا یہ محفوظ ہے؟

"Is it safe with my other tablets?"

A blood pressure tablet, a painkiller and something for the stomach. Nobody checks whether those three belong in the same day.

اس کے مضر اثرات کیا ہیں؟

"What will it do to me?"

Drowsiness before a drive home, a stomach that can't take it on an empty morning — the things worth knowing before the first dose, not after.

Everything in the app

What one scan gives you

No account needed to look something up, and nothing in the app is for sale.

Camera scan with five ranked matches

Reads the name and strength off the carton and shows the most likely matches so you can confirm the exact pack you're holding.

Search by medicine, symptom or condition

Three ways in. Useful when the box is gone, the label has worn off, or you only know what it was prescribed for.

Active ingredients, named and measured

Each salt inside the box with its exact strength — the only reliable way to tell two medicines apart, or recognise that they're identical.

Common uses in plain words

What the medicine is normally given for, written for a patient rather than lifted from a package insert.

Health alerts before the first dose

The cautions that matter — what to avoid alongside it, which conditions make it risky, and what needs monitoring while you're on it.

Reported side effects

What people commonly experience, and which ones mean you should stop and speak to someone.

Other brands, same ingredients

Every product registered with the same active ingredients, so you can recognise the equivalent box when the one you were given isn't available.

A profile that remembers

Your medications, your conditions and every scan you've made, kept together and private to you.

Urdu, written and spoken

Switch the whole app to Urdu, or tap once and have the instructions read out for anyone who can't read a 5pt English label.

0Medicine packs indexed
0Average scan to result
0Contraindication classes flagged
0Ranked matches per scan
Version two

Scanning one box is where it starts

Most households here keep a shoebox of strips for five people. The next release stops treating each one as a separate question.

Interaction checker · working preview

Pick two or three medicines taken together and DawaLens checks them against each other.

Select at least two medicines
Check three at onceLive here

Add every medicine in the house and see which pairs shouldn't share a day — painkillers against blood thinners, antacids against antibiotics.

Dosage trackingNext

Set the course once — twice daily for five days — and get a nudge until the strip is finished, not until you forget. One phone, separate schedules for each person.

Full patient passportNext

The profile grows into a complete record — prescriptions, allergies, running courses and scans — that you can hand to a doctor, or to whoever takes your father to the hospital when you're not there.

Questions

Before you ask

Does it cost anything?

Scanning a medicine and reading what's inside it will always be free. There is no paywall on knowing what you're taking, and no account required just to look something up.

Does it show medicine prices?

No. DawaLens doesn't list prices and doesn't sell anything. It tells you what a medicine is and what's in it — what it costs is between you and your pharmacy.

Where does the information come from?

Medicines are matched against the registered product records for Pakistan, and the clinical content is reviewed before it goes in. When we're not confident about a match, the app shows you the alternatives rather than guessing.

Will it tell me which medicine to take?

No, and it shouldn't. DawaLens explains what a medicine is so that you understand what you've been given and can ask better questions. Choosing treatment is a doctor's job.

یہ ایپ آپ کو دوا تجویز نہیں کرتی — صرف بتاتی ہے کہ دوا ہے کیا۔

Does it work without internet?

The core medicine index is kept on the phone after the first scan, so you can look something up in a village clinic with one bar of signal.

Is it in Urdu?

Yes. The whole interface switches to Urdu, and the medicine information is written in Urdu rather than machine-translated from English. It can also be read aloud.

پوری ایپ اردو میں دستیاب ہے، اور معلومات پڑھ کر سنائی بھی جا سکتی ہیں۔

What happens to my data?

Your profile — the medicines, conditions and scans you save — stays yours. It isn't sold, and it isn't shared with pharmacies or manufacturers.

Early access

Be first to hold it

We're still tuning the reader against local packaging — the foil, the glare, the Urdu on the back. Leave your number and we'll message you on WhatsApp the day DawaLens goes live. No marketing, no noise.

جس دن ایپ تیار ہوگی، ہم آپ کو واٹس ایپ پر اطلاع دیں گے۔

One message at launch. Nothing else.

You're on the list

We'll message you on WhatsApp the day it goes live.

آپ کا نام فہرست میں شامل کر لیا گیا ہے۔