[Reporter’s view] public-private consultative body

for drug shortages must be quickly considered for legislation

During the swine flu pandemic, South Korea had a challenging time due to the Tamiflu shortage.

 

Then, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the government spent national finances to import vaccines from the U.S., Europe, and even Russia due to the absence of local mRNA vaccines.

 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, countries worldwide focused on locally distributing medicines and active pharmaceutical ingredients (API), and strengthened the trade hurdle, maintaining a closed economy.

 

Therefore, South Korea acknowledged the importance of the pharmaceutical and biotech industry as a national security industry.

 

The World Health Organization (WHO) announced the end of the COVID-19 pandemic in May of last year.

 

However, the pharmaceutical sector is still affected by its aftermath.

 

There are shortages of basic essential drugs, such as antipyretic analgesic agents containing acetaminophen.

 

Fortunately, the government department responsible for the sector actively meets with a public-private consultative body for drug shortages to resolve the issue.

 

The Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) and the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) regularly host meetings with officials from the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA), Korea Pharmaceutical Association, the Korean Medical Association, and the Korea Pharmaceutical and Bio-Pharma Manufacturers Association (KPBMA) to review current drug shortages list and possible causes and discuss solutions.

 

Consequently, out-of-stock medicine issues have been resolved with updated policies, such as maintaining production cost and conditional drug price increase, to encourage the volume of production by the pharmaceutical companies that are manufacturing out-of-stock medicines, and administrative measures to simplify the distribution stage.

 

For these effective administrative measures to continue producing positive results, we need to institutionalize them through legislation.

 

In other words, this must be submitted for an item to the National Assembly to specify running a public-private consultative body for drug shortages in the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act.

 

The "public-private consultative body for drug shortages" bill was passed by consensus in the relevant standing committee, the Health and Welfare Committee, in the 21st National Assembly and submitted to the Legislation & Judiciary Committee.

 

However, it was not enacted due to the expiration of the legislative term, resulting in legislative failure.

 

Fortunately, the same bill was reintroduced in the early stages of the 22nd National Assembly and will be considered for review.

 

Drug shortages, which occur frequently and suddenly, disrupt pharmacies and pose a threat to public health.

 

The National Assembly must prioritize and address this pressing national issue with total effort for the well-being of the citizens.

 

Establishing a management committee involving both public and private sectors is crucial to supervising drug shortage distribution and implementing a drug shortage management system.

 

Additionally, legislative measures should ensure the authority to issue emergency production and import orders for drugs in short supply.

 

Establishing this will be essential for effectively addressing drug shortages without delays in an upcoming pandemic.

 

We hope the new National Assembly is aware that the previous legislative term ended without passing this bill, and we hope they will promptly resolve issues through swift legislation.