5 Billion Won Worth of Medicine Gathering Dust on the Pharmacy Shelves

After the separation of the roles of pharmacists and doctors, 5 billion won worth of medicine has been stocked up in the pharmacies across the nation. The greater part of the supply is likely to be discarded.

The Korean Pharmaceutical Association (KPA) investigated the present stock of unsealed medicine never used for prescriptions in local hospitals and clinics from September to November. They examined 1,088 pharmacies in each region of the whole nation last December. And KPA declared that the amount reached 3.1 billion won in worth (average 2,860,000 won a pharmacy) on the 6th.

Accordingly, KPA presumed that 5 billion won worth of medicine was stocked in the 18,000 pharmacies nationwide.

The stocked medicines are specially classified ones delivered in boxes of 500 tablets or 1,000 tablets which were already opened for prescription, but not used because they were not on the prescription list.

A KPA official asserted, "60 percent of these were not purchased from direct transactions with a pharmaceutical company but from a distribution company. So returning the goods is impossible in principle, and the returned medicine is to be scrapped which ends with a big national loss." He also asserted, "The regional medical association ought to fix the list of the prescribed medicine."

But a doctor of a clinic in the metropolitan area said, "This if the result of the pharmaceutical companies’ enormous supply of medicine, ignoring the balance of supply and demand after the separation of the roles of pharmacists and doctors." And he urged the pharmaceutical companies to keep the balance of supply and demand.

87 among 230 regional medical associations now offer related pharmaceutical associations the list of the prescribed medicine. Among these, only 53 (23 percent) have the fixed notification after discussing with the pharmaceutical association.

hanscho@donga.com