MFDS Confirms Next Year's Budget at Record High of 676.5 Billion Won

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Gwan-joo] The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety announced on the 27th that next year's budget has been finalized at 676.5 billion KRW, an increase of 1.9% compared to this year. This finalized budget is the largest since the establishment of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety.

The Ministry plans to focus on four key areas: ▲ creating safe food and a healthy dietary environment ▲ expanding biohealth safety management and innovation growth infrastructure ▲ strengthening narcotics control and establishing a stable supply system for essential medicines ▲ expanding the regulatory science foundation to lead future safety regulations.

The major budget increases approved by the National Assembly include strengthening online education for narcotics harm prevention and expanding rehabilitation infrastructure for addicts, establishing a real-time analysis system for narcotics misuse and abuse prescriptions and usage cases, expanding the installation of social welfare meal management support centers to support hygiene and nutrition management at social welfare meal facilities for the elderly and disabled, introducing a compensation system for side effects of emergency use authorization drugs such as COVID-19 treatments, expanding contamination surveys for the increasingly consumed home meal replacement products, and strengthening technical support for software (SW) medical device approvals.

By sector, 233.2 billion KRW will be invested in safe food and healthy dietary environment creation, 167.2 billion KRW in biohealth safety management and innovation growth infrastructure, 24.8 billion KRW in narcotics control and stable supply of essential medicines, and 37 billion KRW in expanding the regulatory science foundation to lead future safety regulations.

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety stated, "We will do our best to ensure that the 2023 budget approved by the National Assembly is promptly executed by thoroughly preparing budget allocation and project execution plans so that the public can feel the results."

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