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FDA Resumes Sample-Check of Imported Condoms at Borders Starting June 1

  • Data Source:Ministry of Health and Welfare
  • Created:2013-06-06
  • Last Updated:2017-02-03

To implement inspection of drugs at the borders, the Department of Health promulgated the “Regulations Governing the Sample-Check of Imported Drugs at the Borders” on May 13, 2013. Sample-check of products such as condoms originally listed as items subject to the inspection by the Bureau of Standards, Metrology and Inspection (BSMI) under the Ministry of Economic Affairs will be resumed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Department of Health starting June 1, 2013, in accordance with the above regulations, to protect public health and safety by preventing unsafe drugs from entering our country. 
In 1999, in view of the rampant spread of venereal diseases such as AIDS due to open sex and of the paramount importance of condom quality to venereal-disease control, and in order to ensure public health, the Department of Health requested BSMI to classify condoms as a product subject to inspection and to sample-check them upon import, allowing them to enter the country only after they had passed quality checks. These measures aimed to strengthen control at the source and ensure product quality. 
With the FDA resuming the task, sample-check of imported drugs at the borders has become unified, which not only strengthens the control of imported drugs at the borders but also betters the drug management mechanism, helping the control at the production source, inspection before market sales, and supervision after their availability on the market, to implement the inspection of drug safety, efficacy, and quality, and to enhance the safeguard of medication safety.