"Preventing Medicine Shortages" Public-Private Council Held to Stabilize Supply

The government, medical community, and pharmaceutical industry have taken steps to prepare supply stabilization measures in response to shortages of certain medicines.

On the 10th, the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety announced that they held a public-private consultative meeting to organize the response system for out-of-stock medicines. Attendees included Lee Hyung-hoon, Director of Health and Medical Policy at the Ministry of Health and Welfare; Kang Seok-yeon, Director of the Drug Safety Bureau at the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety; Lee So-young, Director of the Comprehensive Drug Management Information Center; Jung Hyun-chul, Vice President of the Korean Pharmaceutical Association; Jang Byung-won, Vice President of the Korea Pharmaceutical and Bio-Pharma Manufacturers Association; and Nam Sang-gyu, Vice President of the Korea Pharmaceutical Distribution Association.

Last year, when shortages of antipyretic analgesics occurred due to the COVID-19 and influenza outbreaks, the Ministry of Health and Welfare convened a public-private consultative body to promote supply stabilization. Since then, concerns have been raised on-site about potential public inconvenience due to supply instability of certain medicines beyond cold remedies, including laxatives and antihypertensive drugs. Accordingly, this public-private consultative meeting was held to comprehensively review the response system for out-of-stock medicines and seek improvement measures.

At the meeting, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety explained the monitoring and response status of drug supply, while the Ministry of Health and Welfare outlined current response systems including distribution-related measures and recommendations for prescription cooperation. Various opinions were presented by private organizations based on on-site cases of shortages such as cold medicines.

The consultative body plans to discuss improvement measures by referring to suggestions and overseas cases, focusing on the current response system. To enable efficient response, it was decided to define the scope and criteria of "out-of-stock" to address current issues, with detailed matters to be discussed at future working-level meetings and finalized by the consultative body.

Lee Hyung-hoon, Director of Health and Medical Policy, stated, "Since there is a possibility of drug shortages in the future, we will strive to establish effective improvement measures through communication between the government and private sector to ensure the smooth supply of essential medicines that have a significant impact on public health."

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