(image: Korea Bizwire)
SEOUL, Nov. 5 (Korea Bizwire) — Pharmaceutical companies are facing controversy as they were found to be avoiding manufacturing certain medicines for which authorities issued sales permits upon condition that they would be used for clinical trials on patients, if market reaction was ‘not good enough’.
Rep. Jang Jeong-sook of the ruling Democratic Party, a member of the Health and Welfare Committee at the National Assembly, disclosed that out of 23 products that were given conditional sales permits in the last three years, 11 of them were never manufactured.
The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety issued permits for these products upon condition that they would be provided to patients with terminal illnesses or who had exhausted other forms of treatment.
Pharmaceutical companies were then expected to report the results of the clinical trials to the ministry. “These products were given permits because they were to provide treatment opportunities to patients,” Jang said.
“Conditional permits won’t mean anything if the companies fail to supply these medicines.”
Jang also emphasized that it was the ministry’s responsibility to “review how much the product is in demand, how it will be supplied, and how it will meet the conditions provided,” adding that “products that are not made should be scrapped.”
H. M. Kang (hmkang@koreabizwire.com)
