The government has decided to limit the number of cold medicines sold at pharmacies as concerns over a shortage of cold medicines in Korea due to the outbreak of Corona 19 in China.
It was decided to strengthen crackdowns on smuggling of cold medicines through the airport and postal mail, and to actively crack down on the act of hoarding cold medicines for resale.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, and the Korea Customs Service held the 4th public-private consultative body meeting on cold medicines and decided to implement measures to eradicate cold medicine hoarding.
The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety has decided to promote 'distribution improvement measures', including restrictions on the number of cold medicines sold by pharmacies.
According to the Special Act on the Promotion of Development and Emergency Supply of Medical Products in Response to Public Health Crises, the Minister of Food and Drug Safety may take necessary distribution improvement measures for medical products, sales outlets, sales procedures, sales volume, sales conditions, etc.
The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety plans to hold a Public Health Crisis Response Committee early next week to determine the timing and target of implementation of these distribution improvement measures, and the sales limit.
The Korea Customs Service, along with the Airport Corporation and Korea Post, will strengthen crackdowns on smuggling of cold medicines abroad.
According to the Customs Act, to export goods such as cold medicine, the name, specification, quantity, and price of goods must be declared to customs.
Violation of this will result in imprisonment for up to three years or a fine equivalent to the cost of the goods.
The Korea Customs Service emphasized that "if cold medicines taken out of the country are for sale rather than for self-consumption, they are subject to export declaration." In case of violation, they will be punished as smuggling according to the Customs Act.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare is seeking measures to increase the effectiveness of crackdowns by more actively informing relevant organizations such as the Korean Pharmaceutical Association and public health centers across the country about the illegality of overselling cold medicines.
Together with public health centers, the National Police Agency, and the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service, we are preparing measures to strengthen detection and crackdowns through the vitalization of reporting, while intensively strengthening publicity and crackdowns targeting regions with a high possibility of hoarding for overseas sales.
According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, both sellers and buyers are subject to punishment when selling an excessive amount of cold medicine.
The Pharmaceutical Affairs Act prohibits pharmacies from wholesale pharmaceuticals.
Violating pharmacies will be suspended for up to one month.
Also, unless it is a pharmacy, you must not sell medicines or acquire medicines for the purpose of selling them.
Violation of this is punishable by imprisonment for up to five years or a fine of up to 50 million won.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare and others emphasized that "excessive purchase of cold medicine for the purpose of resale is not only a deteriorating supply and demand situation, but also an undesirable act in terms of misuse and abuse of medicines."
Recently, as China's Corona 19 regulatory policy has been eased and the flu is prevalent at the same time as Corona 19 in Korea, a 'twindemic' has occurred, raising concerns about cold medicine shortages.
In particular, as cases of hoarding cold medicine to be smuggled into China became known through media reports, the government was required to prepare countermeasures.