Page 70 - 2018食藥署年報(英文版)

Section 4 Strategies for NPS Prevention

Origin of Policy

As of the end of 2017, up to 800 NPS around the world have been reported to the United
Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNDOC). To help understand the status of abuse with

emerging drugs in the country, the Administration created a monitoring mechanism and prepares
the “drug abuse cases and tests statistics” on a monthly basis and provided it to respective
ministries, departments, and health authorities throughout the country for their reference.

Implementation Measures

In order to enhance anti-drug performance and to deter emerging drugs, the Executive
Yuan initiated the “New-generation Anti-drug Strategy” that focuses on five aspects, namely
drug monitoring, drug prevention, drug sweeps, drug rehabilitation treatment and strategies

for amending laws and regulations. As the authority in charge of the anti-drug strategy, the
Administration introduced, in terms of drug monitoring, the two core sub-strategies, namely
“prevention against the importation of illicit drug raw materials in the name of the active
pharmaceutical ingredient” and “expand inspection capabilities to detect emerging drugs by
establishing standard analytical profiles for them.” Border checks and control are performed on
active pharmaceutical ingredients and the capabilities in the testing of new drugs are reinforced
through cross-ministerial/cross-departmental collaboration in order to block NPS so that they
cannot spread in the country.

Outcomes and Benefits

In order to prevent ill-intentioned manufacturers from turning imported active

pharmaceutical ingredients into precursors for producing illicit drugs, the Administration
announced on October 31, 2017 that Requirement F04 would be established (to be officially
announced on March 22, 2018) that spontaneous application for importation checks should be

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