Nootropics in the Philippines: FDA registration, “No Approved Therapeutic Claims” and personal-import limits

FDA Philippines states that processed food products, including food supplements, manufactured or distributed for trade must have a Certificate of Product Registration (CPR) before they are sold, offered for sale, distributed or promoted, under R.A. 9711 and A.O. 2014-0029.

To check whether a food product or food supplement is registered, FDA Philippines points consumers to its Verification Portal.

FDA Advisory No. 2025-1552 states that food and dietary supplements must comply with strict labelling requirements, such as bearing the statement “NO APPROVED THERAPEUTIC CLAIMS” and the precautionary statement on children, pregnant and lactating women.

The same advisory sets a mandatory Filipino-language advertising disclaimer:

“MAHALAGANG PAALALA: ANG [NAME OF PRODUCT] AY HINDI GAMOT AT HINDI DAPAT GAMITING PANGGAMOT SA ANUMANG URI NG SAKIT.”

In English: the product is not a medicine and should not be used to treat any kind of disease. We follow the same rule on this page, describing products by what they contain and where they are sold, not by what they might treat.

FDA Advisory No. 2023-2179 told the public “NOT TO PURCHASE AND CONSUME the unregistered food supplement” LX Nutrition Brain Booster Nootropics Dietary Supplement. The advisory turned on registration: the product had no Certificate of Product Registration.

The practical lesson for buyers: before relying on any supplement sold in the Philippines, search its name in the FDA Verification Portal.

Quantity. Joint Circular No. 1 of 22 June 2015, issued by the Department of Health, FDA and the Bureau of Customs, allows travellers to bring in “Vitamins: supplements: health supplements intended as maintenance medicine: 500 grams total” without prior FDA clearance, as reproduced on philippine-embassy.de.

Duties and taxes. Bureau of Customs CAO No. 02-2016 states: “The law sets the De Minimis Value at Php 10,000.00 (Ten Thousand Pesos) FCA or FOB or below.” Imports at or below that value are not charged duties or taxes.

Modafinil, phenibut, kratom and mitragynine do not appear by name in the Dangerous Drugs Board's “Updated Lists of Scheduled Controlled Substances” as of 6 July 2025, which covers dangerous drugs and controlled precursors and essential chemicals.

That finding is deliberately narrow. The list covers the Dangerous Drugs Board's schedules only. It does not establish whether a substance such as modafinil needs a prescription under FDA Philippines' separate drug rules, which we did not check, so it is not a statement that any of these substances is unregulated.

Memo Plus Gold. The Watsons Philippines listing states that each tablet contains 125 mg of Bacopa monnieri extract and 250 mg of dicalcium phosphate as an excipient. Southstar Drug's online store also lists it, describing it as a herbal food supplement formulated with Bacopa monnieri extract. See our Memo Plus Gold review and the Bacopa monnieri ingredient page.

Supershrooms Focus Nootropic. Supershrooms' FAQ states: “Our products are manufactured in a GMP & ISO certified facility, which is registered with the US FDA. Our FDA License No. is CFRR-NCR-FI/W-703236.” We note one observation: the FAQ describes the registration as a US FDA one, while the licence number follows the format used by FDA Philippines' Center for Food Regulation and Research (CFRR). We could not look the number up in the FDA Verification Portal for this guide, so we make no finding on its status; you can search it there yourself. See our Supershrooms Focus Nootropic review.

We only report shipping from each brand's own FAQ or shipping page. For the other imported products in our Southeast Asia catalogue we did not confirm Philippines shipping from a brand page for this guide, so we make no claim either way; check at checkout.

The retail listings we confirmed for this guide are Memo Plus Gold on Watsons Philippines and on Southstar Drug. We could not load Lazada Philippines' listing (it returned an anti-bot check), and we did not check Mercury Drug or Shopee, so we do not list them.

For the buying comparison across the region, use our best nootropics in Southeast Asia roundup; if you are new to the category, start with what nootropics are. Neighbouring market: our guide to nootropics in Thailand.