Korea To Establish drugs Agency

A new agency to take charge of drugs and medicines and food safety will be set up in April by Korea's ministry of health and Welfare.

The agency will be expanded by the end of first-half 1997 to a ministry-level independent agency, provisionally named the National Food and Drug Administration (based on the US FDA), with branches in Seoul, Pusan, Inchon, Taegu, Kwangjiu and Taejon.

Health Minister Kim Yangbae says this development represents the government's "firm determination" to upgrade the quality of life. The NFDA's pharmaceuticals section will absorb certain existing functions and focus on evaluation of medicines, medical equipment and raw and biotechnological preparations.