Korean Pharmacists Foil OTC Plans

Threatened action by Korean pharmacists and opposition by the Ministryof Health and Welfare have halted proposals by the Fair Trade Commission to allow certain non-prescription medicines and medical items to be obtained from supermarkets and convenience stores, without a pharmacist's supervision.

The FTC had proposed that it would be in consumers' best interests to be able to purchase in this way products such as digestion aids, vitamins, analgesics, health tonics and bandages, along the lines of the over-the-counter products which are available in supermarkets in the USA.

However, the Korea Pharmaceutical Association, which represents the country's 45,000 pharmacists, stated that such a move would have a negative effect on public health, and in this it was backed by the Ministry of Health and Welfare. The association said that its members would close their pharmacies and stage a massive anti-government rally unless the government removed the proposal from a "deregulation panel" meeting due to be held last month under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Koh Kun. The purpose of the meeting was to have been to find ways in which unnecessary government regulation could be removed to enable the sale of these products OTC.