US calls for additional FTA measures to ensure transparency in medicine pricing in Korea
Arirang | 7 March 2012
US calls for additional FTA measures to ensure transparency in medicine pricing in Korea
It’s all in the details. With just days left before the official implementation of the U.S. Korea free trade agreement Washington is drawing attention to a little publicized area of the trade treat, the part covering the pricing of medicine in Korea. The United States says it wants more transparency; the Korean pharmaceutical industry says it wants to maintain control over pricing domestically.
At issue : U.S officials say they expect Korea to implement additional FTA provisions to ensure transparency in the pricing of medicines after the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement comes into effect.
According to U.S. Inside Trade on Tuesday local time, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk, in a letter to a Republican lawmaker, said that Washington plans to raise the issue if Seoul fails to comply with an agreement that the two nations reached earlier regarding Korea’s procedure for pricing pharmaceutical products.
The two nations had agreed to create review procedures in the event of disputes over the pricing of medicines.
Accordingly if an American drugmaker disagrees with the pricing of its product in Korea, it has the option to refute the price and have a third-party intervene.
However, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America says the agreement does not go far enough in that the independent review system does not apply to ALL pharmaceutical products. and is pushing the Korean government to expand the list of products covered.
Meanwhile, Korea’s pharmaceutical sector has expressed concern, that American drugmakers are trying to control pricing in the domestic market.
Hwang Sung-hee, Arirang News.
MAR 07, 2012
Reporter : ssung86@arirang.co.kr
