[New Year's Address] Choi Kwang-hoon, President of the Pharmacists Association, "Committed to Legalizing Public Late-Night Pharmacies"

Kwanghoon Choi, President of the Korea Pharmaceutical Association (Photo by Korea Pharmaceutical Association)

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Chun-hee] On the 2nd, Choi Kwang-hoon, President of the Korea Pharmaceutical Association, emphasized in his New Year's address, "The new year will be a year dedicated to efforts to preserve the identity of pharmacists," and stated, "We will strive to legislate public late-night pharmacies."

President Choi described public late-night pharmacies as "a fundamental means to prevent various attempts to commodify pharmaceuticals, such as convenience store medicines and medicine vending machines, by recognizing pharmaceuticals merely as a means of profit," and added, "We will ensure that the efforts of members operating public late-night pharmacies are not in vain and that pharmacists are properly recognized as pharmacists."

Regarding the government's direction for 'non-face-to-face' healthcare, he said, "We will uphold the basic proposition under the Pharmacists Act that 'pharmaceuticals must be safely and effectively dispensed by pharmacists at pharmacies' without compromise," and added, "We will actively work to establish a professional pharmacist system, enhance continuing education, and institutionalize home pharmaceutical care."

Finally, President Choi stated, "In the Year of the Black Rabbit, we will strive to strengthen professionalism for institutional improvement and awareness enhancement so that members' rights and interests are justly respected."

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