diff --git a/R/check_miss_data.R b/R/check_miss_data.R
index 30eefaf..b24bf61 100644
--- a/R/check_miss_data.R
+++ b/R/check_miss_data.R
@@ -7,7 +7,8 @@
 #' @keywords internal
 #' @importFrom stats complete.cases
 check_miss_data <- function(sumstats_dt, path, log_folder_ind, check_save_out,
-                            tabix_index, nThread, log_files) {
+                            tabix_index, nThread, log_files,
+                            drop_na_cols) {
     message("Checking for missing data.")
     col_headers <- names(sumstats_dt)
     # use data table for speed
@@ -20,7 +21,16 @@ check_miss_data <- function(sumstats_dt, path, log_folder_ind, check_save_out,
         col_headers[grepl("^convert_", col_headers)],
         "SNP_INFO"["SNP_INFO"%in% col_headers]
     )
-    incl_cols <- names(sumstats_dt)[!names(sumstats_dt) %in% ignore_cols]
+    
+    if (!is.null(drop_na_cols)) {
+      drop_na_cols_in_sumstats <-
+        c(drop_na_cols)[drop_na_cols %in% names(sumstats_dt)]
+      incl_cols <-
+        c(drop_na_cols_in_sumstats)[!drop_na_cols_in_sumstats %in% ignore_cols]
+    } else {
+      incl_cols <- names(sumstats_dt)[!names(sumstats_dt) %in% ignore_cols]  
+    }
+    
     if (nrow(sumstats_dt[!complete.cases(sumstats_dt[, incl_cols,
         with = FALSE
     ]), ]) > 0) {
diff --git a/R/format_sumstats.R b/R/format_sumstats.R
index 69422a4..212e11f 100644
--- a/R/format_sumstats.R
+++ b/R/format_sumstats.R
@@ -221,6 +221,11 @@
 #' give is incorrect you can supply your own mapping file. Must be a 2 column
 #' dataframe with column names "Uncorrected" and "Corrected". See
 #' data(sumstatsColHeaders) for default mapping and necessary format.
+#' @param drop_na_cols A character vector of column names to be checked for missing values. 
+#' Rows with missing values in any of these columns (if present in the dataset) will be dropped. If `NULL`, 
+#' all columns will be checked for missing values. Default columns are SNP, 
+#' chromosome, position, allele 1, allele2, frequency, beta, standard error, p 
+#' value and N columns.
 #'
 #' @importFrom data.table fread
 #' @importFrom data.table fwrite
@@ -284,6 +289,7 @@ format_sumstats <- function(path,
                             imputation_ind = FALSE,
                             force_new = FALSE,
                             mapping_file = sumstatsColHeaders,
+                            drop_na_cols = c("SNP", "CHR", "BP", "A1", "A2", "FRQ", "BETA", "SE", "P", "N"),
                             #deprecated parameters
                             rmv_chrPrefix = NULL
                             ) {
@@ -367,6 +373,7 @@ format_sumstats <- function(path,
             mapping_file = mapping_file,
             tabix_index = tabix_index,
             chain_source = chain_source,
+            drop_na_cols = drop_na_cols,
             #deprecated parameters
             rmv_chrPrefix = rmv_chrPrefix
         )
@@ -773,7 +780,8 @@ format_sumstats <- function(path,
                 check_save_out = check_save_out,
                 tabix_index = tabix_index,
                 nThread = nThread,
-                log_files = log_files
+                log_files = log_files,
+                drop_na_cols = drop_na_cols
             )
         # update values
         log_files <- sumstats_return$log_files
diff --git a/R/validate_parameters.R b/R/validate_parameters.R
index 2db30fb..b1637d5 100644
--- a/R/validate_parameters.R
+++ b/R/validate_parameters.R
@@ -46,6 +46,7 @@ validate_parameters <- function(path,
                                 mapping_file,
                                 tabix_index,
                                 chain_source,
+                                drop_na_cols,
                                 #deprecated parameters
                                 rmv_chrPrefix) {
     # Checking if the file exists should happen first -
@@ -406,6 +407,15 @@ validate_parameters <- function(path,
         stop(tbx_msg)
     }
     
+    # validate drop_na_cols
+    if (!is.character(drop_na_cols)) {
+      if (!is.null(drop_na_cols)) {
+        stop(
+          "Parameter `drop_na_cols` should be either a character vector of column names, or `NULL`"
+        )
+      }
+    } 
+    
     #deprecated parameters
     if (!is.null(rmv_chrPrefix)) { 
       dep_msg <- paste0(
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-missing_data.R b/tests/testthat/test-missing_data.R
index 1701331..771c159 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-missing_data.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-missing_data.R
@@ -60,6 +60,38 @@ test_that("Handle missing data", {
         )
         reformatted_lines <- readLines(reformatted)
         expect_equal(reformatted_lines, org_lines)
+        
+        # set `drop_na_cols` to `NULL`
+        miss_extra_col <- miss
+        miss_extra_col$extra <- NA
+        
+        expect_error(MungeSumstats::format_sumstats(
+          miss_extra_col,
+          ref_genome = "GRCh37",
+          on_ref_genome = FALSE,
+          strand_ambig_filter = FALSE,
+          bi_allelic_filter = FALSE,
+          allele_flip_check = FALSE,
+          sort_coordinates = FALSE,
+          dbSNP = 144, 
+          drop_na_cols = NULL
+        ), 
+        regexp = "All SNPs have been filtered out of  your summary statistics dataset")
+          
+        reformatted_extra_col <- MungeSumstats::format_sumstats(
+          miss_extra_col,
+          ref_genome = "GRCh37",
+          on_ref_genome = FALSE,
+          strand_ambig_filter = FALSE,
+          bi_allelic_filter = FALSE,
+          allele_flip_check = FALSE,
+          sort_coordinates = FALSE,
+          dbSNP = 144, 
+          drop_na_cols = c("CHR", "POS")
+        )
+        
+        reformatted_extra_col_lines <- readLines(reformatted_extra_col)
+        expect_equal(length(reformatted_extra_col_lines), length(org_lines))
     }    
     else{
         expect_equal(is_32bit_windows, TRUE)