The Food and Drug Administration of the Philippines (FDA) reminds all concerned Pharmaceutical Companies to indicate the Global Product Identification Number (GPIN) and an establishment number on their products.

GPIN is a unique reference issued by international organizations and is being implemented in over 100 countries worldwide. This standard of measure is recognized by the World Customs Organization and the World Health Organization to help the fight against counterfeit products.

The implementation of GPIN also helps to lessen the processing time in clearing products when facilitating trade. If a product is imported from a foreign manufacturer, the local distributor will not need to apply for a new GPIN since the product would have an internationally recognized GPIN already. In this case, to comply with the requirements, an establishment number should be obtained.

However, if a drug product is manufactured locally, the local drug establishment must join a global standards organization to obtain their establishment identification number and be provided with GPIN for their products.

On June 30, 2016, all products must be labeled with a barcode or a QR Code corresponding to its respective GPIN. Also part of the label is the batch and lot number together with the expiry date.