ASEAN-Philippines Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (as amended by Executive Order No. 175)

Republic Act No. 3720 is the foundational legislation for health product regulation in the Philippines. It establishes the State policy of ensuring the safety and purity of foods, drugs, and cosmetics, and creates a food and drug regulatory office under the Department of Health—later renamed the Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFAD) pursuant to EO 175, which also brought medical devices within its regulatory scope—vesting it with powers including sampling and testing, standard-setting, licensing and registration, factory inspection, import control, and advertising regulation. The Act defines key terms such as food, drugs, cosmetics, and medical devices, explicitly prohibits adulteration, misbranding, and the marketing of unregistered products with corresponding criminal penalties, and sets up frameworks for new drug approval, antibiotic batch certification, port-of-entry inspection, and recall of non-compliant products, thereby laying the legal foundation for end-to-end oversight of health products in the Philippines.