[Reporter's View] Address Actions to drug substitution

Asked to Minister Cho Kyoo-hong

"We will foremostly activate drug substation to resolve the drug shortages issue," Cho Kyoo-hong, Minister of Health and Welfare (MOHW), promised during the parliamentary audit session commenced by the National Assembly's Small Committee for Health and Welfare.

 

This is an answer from the MOHW director to an issue of essential medicines frequently in shortage, leading to chaos in pharmacies and lower patient access to medications.

 

The issue has been unresolved for several years.

 

Rep.

 

Seo Youngseok and Rep.

 

Nam In-soon of the Democratic Party of Korea have requested the implementation of active ingredient prescriptions for cold medicines and essential medicines to resolve the issue of frequent drug shortages.

 

Minister Cho repeatedly answered that he would improve the current situation by enabling drug substitution rather than active ingredient prescription, as the latter requires agreements between officials.

 

According to Minister Cho, activating drug substitution beyond the current 'lower-cost drug substitution incentive' policy by the Health and Welfare Committee requires specific administrative actions, policy establishment, and implementation.

 

In other words, their plan cannot be attained by the way MOHW said to actively participate in the legislative session to review the National Assembly submitted bill for simplifying drug substitution procedure.

 

Passing the plenary session of the National Assembly for the bill for implementation of drug substitution that has been submitted to the National Assembly would take several months after undergoing the legislative process.

 

It has not been considered for the Legislation and Judiciary Small Committee for Health and Welfare.

 

During the legislative procedure, it is unknown whether the bill would face opposite opinions, overcome oppositions, and pass all legislative hurdles.

 

During the parliamentary audit, the MOHW answered a question about the restricted implementation of active ingredient prescriptions for cold medicines by stating, "It is the terms of the medical reform agreement.

 

Therefore, the issue requires societal discussion and a procedural agreement." Then, the MOHW must consider detailed and active administration to implement drug substitution to resolve frequent drug shortages of cold medicines and pediatric medicines.

 

In particular, lower-cost drug substitution must be increased because the government provides incentives to strengthen the stability of the National Health Insurance finance.

 

According to the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA), the incentive for drug substitution increased temporarily during the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

After the announcement of 'With COVID-19," it returned to that of pre-COVID-19.

 

It shows that drug substitution policy has been conservative and passive unless drug substitution is inevitable, such as during the pandemic period.

 

Not only during this audit but also during the previous parliamentary audit, the MOHW had agreed to the necessity of supporting drug substitution and increasing the incentive rate for lower-cost drug substitution.

 

However, the concern is that they have not suggested a concrete method to specifically address when and how drug substitution can be actively implemented.

 

As Minister Cho promised during the parliamentary audit that he would actively implement drug substitution to resolve the drug shortages, the MOHW must provide incentives and establish an administrative policy so that pharmacies can dispense drug substitution for drug shortages without hesitation.

 

We must not passively wait for the legislative procedure after agreeing to the bill to simplify drug substitution, which is to be reviewed by the National Assembly.

 

Aside from passing the bill to the National Assembly, we hope to hear about MOHW's updated policy to support drug substitution in resolving the drug shortage issue by actively implementing it.