Government Says "Cold Medicine Supply Stable"... Purchase Restrictions Remain 'On Hold'

A pharmacy in downtown Seoul Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Chunhee Lee] Amid growing concerns over a 'cold medicine crisis,' the government has launched a response through intensive monitoring. Initially anticipated distribution improvement measures, such as restrictions on the purchase of COVID-19 self-test kits, have been temporarily postponed.

On the 6th, the government announced that it will first focus on monitoring the distribution status intensively, considering efforts to increase the production and supply of cold medicine and to eradicate hoarding. This measure comes as the possibility of hoarding cold medicine in South Korea, a neighboring country, is gradually increasing due to the recent surge in COVID-19 cases in China.

Accordingly, at the end of last month, the government also considered distribution improvement measures such as limiting the number of purchases per person, but decided to observe the market situation for now, judging that the supply and demand of cold medicine is stable due to the rapid handling of complaints such as price increases for acetaminophen cold medicine, emergency production orders, and additional manufacturing facilities to significantly increase production, as well as the effects of crackdowns on excessive sales and purchases and strengthened export inspections.

Distribution improvement measures refer to actions taken by the government to restrict medical products, their points of sale, sales procedures, sales volume, and sales conditions through deliberation by the Public Health Crisis Response Committee. Earlier last year, the government implemented distribution improvement measures related to the supply of COVID-19 self-test kits, requiring prior approval from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety before shipment and limiting sales points to pharmacies or convenience stores.

However, the government also emphasized that if the supply and demand situation worsens in the future, it plans to immediately implement necessary distribution improvement measures and will take action at any time depending on the situation.