The government is moving to expand the range of over-the-counter medicines available at convenience stores. The Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) plans to discuss raising the number of medicines sold at convenience stores from the current 11 to as many as 20 in the second half of this year, while also adding sales outlets. To this end, it plans to form a committee on expanding the product range and to revise notices and the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act. Currently, only 11 types of medicines—including antipyretic painkillers, digestives, cold medicines, and pain-relief patches—are sold at convenience stores. Despite the considerable inconvenience this causes the public, the number of items has never been expanded in the 14 years since convenience stores were permitted to sell medicines.
The push to expand the range of household medicines comes belatedly. Buying medicines at convenience stores has become routine, with seven out of 10 people having done so at least once in the past year. Yet expansion of the product range has repeatedly been thwarted by collective opposition from pharmacist groups. The logic of their opposition has always been the same: "concerns over drug misuse and abuse." But as with the cases of antidiarrheals and antacids, which were discussed and then withdrawn in 2017, pharmacist groups have repeatedly relied on one-sided claims that the public would abuse the drugs, continuing to protect their own interests. Pharmacists themselves need to reflect on whether the issue was truly public health, or whether it was an economic concern over declining pharmacy sales.
Beyond expanding the range of household medicines, measures to increase the number of sales outlets should also be pursued. At present, only convenience stores open 24 hours a year-round can sell household medicines, but with soaring labor costs, a growing number of convenience stores are closing early, so an appropriate alternative is needed. Of the roughly 8,500 convenience stores in Seoul, 20 to 25 percent are known not to operate during late-night hours. In addition, ways to expand access to household medicines in towns and villages that lack not only pharmacies but even convenience stores should be actively considered.
The benchmark for policy must be the benefit of the public, not the interests of a particular profession. In Korea, the channels for purchasing over-the-counter medicines that can be bought without a prescription are narrow, and issues of accessibility, convenience, and cost efficiency have been raised continuously. Even in the age of artificial intelligence (AI), it does not make sense that information technology (IT) services such as telemedicine, video-based dispensing machines, and automated medicine vending machines remain trapped by regulation only in the medical and pharmaceutical field. Pharmacist groups must recognize that expanding the range of household medicines and broadening the sales network is not a reform that shakes the medical system, but merely a common-sense improvement of regulations affecting daily life.
