SEOUL, June 27 – The South Korean government is introducing new legislation in its fight against corruption, including regulations that will require pharmaceutical companies to divulge payments made to doctors and pharmacists starting next year.
Under the new health care reform, pharmaceutical companies that offer financial compensation to medical staff are required to keep records of all the transactions, which must be presented at the request of the minister of Health and Welfare (MOHW), the ministry announced on Monday.
Often called in the industry as the ‘K-Sunshine Act’ given its similar nature to the Physician Payments Sunshine Act in the U.S., the new reform was put in motion with the intention of bringing transparency and stability to the market by making it a legal requirement for companies to keep records of financial transactions in the medical industry.
As pharmaceutical companies are expected to be hit with a fine of 2 million won for a failure to provide records of payments to doctors, the government is hopeful the K-Sunshine Act will help tackle corruption in the South Korean pharmaceutical industry.
To read the article by Ashley Song
