Korea widens essential-drug production network to include prescribing stage

South Korea's food and drug safety ministry said Thursday it will widen a public production and distribution network for essential medicines so that it covers the point at which low-demand drugs are prescribed and dispensed, part of an effort to keep nationally critical treatments available.

The ministry and the Korea Rare and Essential Drugs Center held the second meeting of the network on Sept. 30, bringing in pharmaceutical and medical associations, drugmakers that already make medicines under government order-production contracts, companies hoping to join, and distributors. Formed last year to support essential medicines from the start of manufacturing through distribution, the network was extended this year to the stage where low-demand medicines are prescribed and dispensed in hospitals and pharmacies.

At the center of the effort is a program under which the government supports private drugmakers in producing nationally essential medicines when imports or domestic supply have been halted or are at risk of being halted and stable supply requires local output. Run since 2016, it now involves six drugmakers producing eight nationally essential medicines, with the center buying and distributing what they make.

"The Pharmaceutical Affairs Act has been revised, laying the groundwork for revitalizing order-based manufacturing, and I ask that the network cooperate actively for the stable supply of essential medicines," said Shin Jun-su, head of the ministry's drug safety bureau, who attended the meeting.

Kim Young-rim, head of the Korea Rare and Essential Drugs Center, said it is a strength of South Korea that government agencies take the lead in responding to drug supply problems, and expressed hope that public-private cooperation would develop into a model that benefits the public.

Participants included the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety and the center as well as the Korea Pharmaceutical and Bio-Pharma Manufacturers Association, the Korea Bio-Pharmaceutical Association, the Korea Pharmaceutical Distribution Association, the Korean Medical Association and the Korean Society of Hospital Pharmacists.

The ministry and the center said they will keep working with the pharmaceutical, medical and pharmacy sectors through the network to stabilize the supply of nationally essential medicines, strengthen the domestic production system and give patients dependable access to treatment.