MFDS Focuses on "Safe Food and Medicine" by Blocking Illegal Distribution and Misuse of Narcotics Using AI

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety plans to use artificial intelligence (AI) technology this year to prevent misuse such as self-prescription and overprescription of medical narcotics, and to promote science-based regulatory innovation in food and drug safety.

On the 19th, Yu Kyung Oh, Commissioner of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, announced the "2024 Major Policy Implementation Plan of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety" at the ministry’s office in Osong, Chungbuk.

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As part of the CPR (Control, Prevention & Recovery) project for "Emergency Measures to Restore the Narcotics Clean Country," the Ministry plans to link narcotics misuse information from related ministries such as the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Ministry of Justice with the Integrated Narcotics Management System, and use AI technology to analyze and inspect cases of narcotics misuse.

Additionally, medical professionals will be required to check patients’ medical narcotics prescription histories before prescribing, and joint inspections on illegal distribution and misuse of narcotics will be conducted in cooperation with the police and local governments.

AI will also be actively utilized in other food and drug regulatory areas. Currently, electronic review (SAFE-i 24) is applied only to food additives and agricultural, livestock, and fishery products, but its scope will be expanded to all imported foods that are relatively low-risk and repeatedly imported, such as processed foods and health functional foods. A "Food Labeling AI Consultation Bot" using generative and conversational AI developed by the private sector will be established to reduce civil complaint consultation processing time to within one hour, and an automatic collection and analysis function of illegal online advertising will be built into the "Online Illegal Food and Drug Distribution Monitoring System (e-Robot)."

Regarding regulatory innovation, the Ministry will set tasks for Regulatory Innovation 3.0 this year and prepare specific implementation procedures for the "Food and Drug Regulatory Science Innovation Act," which forms the basis for these tasks.

As part of regulatory innovation, support for innovative products will be strengthened. The Ministry plans to support the commercialization of new types of medical products such as digital medical devices and digital convergence pharmaceuticals, and proactively present approval and review guidelines for advanced pharmaceuticals.

In cases of so-called "shrinkflation," where the price of existing products remains the same but the size and weight are reduced as a form of deceptive price increase, mandatory disclosure will be enforced.

Commissioner Yu Kyung Oh stated, "To achieve the national governance goal of a 'warm government, an active government,' we will focus on three core strategies: 'science that adds trust to safety,' 'fieldwork that turns expectations into reality,' and 'collaboration that enhances safety synergy.' We will strive to become an institution that not only ensures the safety of food and drugs for the public but also leads global food and drug safety."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.