The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Philippines has once again proved on standing at its Strengthening Program. Effective last February 3, 2013, the FDA issued License To Operate (LTO) with new format using the FDA security paper.

The administration set out the issuance for all Food, then, Cosmetics and Household Urban Hazardous Substances (HUHS) establishments. Certificate of Product Registration (CPR) and other market authorization and certification will also be handed out with the application and use of the FDA security paper.

The FDA ensures authenticity of all documents they issue with its distinct features. These features include watermark, control numbers or barcode, and logo graphics that is hard-hitting to tamper or duplicate.

In addition to that, according to the FDA, the activities of the distributors as importer, exporter, and/or wholesaler shall now be shown in the first page of the LTO and the category of HUHS will no longer be reflected to the new LTO format.

Through this another breakthrough, the FDA heightens the national security against illegal products sold in the market by means of faking FDA documents.

In coordination with the Bureau of Customs (BOC), the FDA has already requested the BOC to honor both FDA documents reflecting its new format and the use of the security paper and in the ordinary paper given that the issued document is still valid.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Philippines has a remarkable upshot to every Filipino citizen by applying its improved accountability and increased FDA coverage to regulate the safety, efficacy, and quality of health products that reaches not only the Filipino consumer but also the tourists as well.