By Kim Tae-jong
Customers will be able to buy 44 non-prescription drugs such as digestive drinks and antiseptic lotions at supermarkets and convenience stores as early as August.
Currently, all drugs including non-prescription medicines are sold at pharmacies, but the government has decided to designate 44 relatively safe non-prescription medicines as “non-drug” so that retail stores can sell them.
The sale of the medicines will be available with a change in the state bulletin by the health minister _ without having to revise the law banning the sale of the over-the-counter (OTC) medicines outside pharmacies, ministry officials said.
The list of the 44 items was submitted to the subcommittee of the Central Pharmaceutical Affairs Council, whose meeting took place Wednesday. The committee _ comprised of 12 members representing pharmacists, doctors and the public _ will review it and present their views on it.
“The 44 drugs will be available from August at supermarkets after preparatory work involving repackaging of the chosen products by drug firms and supplying them to retailers,” said Lee Dong-wook, an official from the Ministry of Health and Welfare.
But the procedure to allow some other OTCdrugs such as painkillers and cold medicines will be much more complicated as it requires the approval from the committee and the revision of a related law.
“As some OTC drugs such as painkillers and cold medicines cannot be simply categorized as non-drugs, given their pharmacological attributes, it is necessary to revise the related law to allow them to be sold at places other than pharmacies, and it requires approval from the subcommittee,” Lee said.
Due to conflicts in interest, the subcommittee had hours of heated debate over the re-categorization of drugs and the necessity of availability of other OTC drugs including painkillers at places other than pharmacies.
It will hold another meeting on June 21.
This was the first official discussion on the issue, a move to resolve customer inconvenience stemming from closures of pharmacies at night and during holidays.
There has been growing demand from civic groups, but no major changes have been made due to strong opposition from pharmacists and various other interest groups.
Drugs are now classified into two categories _ special medicines requiring a doctor’s prescription and general medicines that can be sold by pharmacists without a prescription. The ministry plans to create a third category under the name of “household medicine” including painkillers and cold remedies, which requires a revision of the Pharmacist Law.
The ministry is considering submitting a bill for the revision at the forthcoming regular session of the National Assembly to allow the sale of non-prescription drugs at places other than pharmacies.