[Reporter's view]Will it be different this time?

Measures to stabilize the supply of essential medicine

Earlier this month, the government announced "Comprehensive Measures for Stable Supply of National Essential Drugs." In the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, the importance of stockpiling and supplying essential medicines has increased, and the government has stepped up.

 

National essential drugs refer to drugs that are essential for health care, but are difficult to supply stably only with market functions.

 

It will be designated by the MOHW and the MFDS through consultation.

 

Currently, 511 items are designated as national essential medicines.

 

The government announced a comprehensive measure of the same name in 2016.

 

At that time, instead of COVID-19, MERS served as a catalyst for establishing countermeasures.

 

Even then, the government said that a stable supply of national essential medicines is important to cope with the public health crisis.

 

After the announcement of comprehensive measures in 2016, did the stockpiling and supply of national essential drugs improve?

 

The prevailing assessment is that this is not the case.

 

Rather, the suspension of supply of essential national drugs is expanding every year.

 

After the establishment of comprehensive measures, the "Lipiodol incident" occurred in 2018.

 

The reason for repeated supply interruptions is simple.

 

This is because pharmaceutical companies no longer supply them.

 

Currently, the government is compensating pharmaceutical companies that produce and import national essential drugs at the "cost" level.

 

However, the pharmaceutical industry argues that this alone is not enough.

 

Who will step up for the public interest in a structure in which the more they produce, the more damage they incur.

 

The government seems to be fully aware of this reality.

 

In fact, the measures announced in 2016 included contents such as "support for the supply of essential medicines for stockpiling" and "establishment of support measures when the supply is suspended." However, adequate support has not been provided, and the national essential medicine system has been lax and has reached this day.

 

Similar information is included in the measures announced this time.

 

The government said it will support production costs for drugs that have been suspended due to poor profitability.

 

In addition, the government said it would purchase all of its production in the case of rare disease treatments that have less domestic demand than the minimum production.

 

The pharmaceutical industry's response is not positive.

 

It has not yet been decided how much production costs will be supported, but the pharmaceutical industry believes that the scope of support is limited to "production costs," which will be far from appealing to companies.

 

Appropriate compensation is an essential solution for a stable supply of national essential drugs.

 

If a company is judged to make any physiological profits, it will jump into the production of national essential medicines even if the government stops them.

 

You cannot forever appeal to the pharmaceutical industry only for the "public interest." We hope that the details of this measure will include reasonable and appropriate compensation.