S’Korea Issues Emergency Order For Cold Medication Production Increase

On Wednesday, South Korean government officials stated that health authorities have issued an emergency order to local pharmaceutical firms to increase the production of acetaminophen tablets in an effort to tackle a cold medicine shortage in the winter season.

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety on Nov. 30 designated 650-milligram tablets of acetaminophen, a medication used to treat fever and mild to moderate pain under the brand name Tylenol, as a crisis management medical product and ordered 18 pharmaceutical companies to produce and import more of it, according to the officials.

The order will be effective through April and companies should report the production, import, sales, and inventory of the medicine to the ministry on a monthly basis, the ministry added.

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The move came after the government announced plans to fill a shortage of fever reducers and pain relievers last month.

According to the government plan, the monthly supply of 650-milligram tablets of acetaminophen will be increased by 60 percent to a monthly 7.2 million tablets by April from an average of 4.5 million tablets.

In South Korea, cold medicine like Tylenol has been running low for months due to rising demand for fever and pain relievers to ease COVID-19 symptoms.

As a means of encouraging local pharmaceutical companies to produce more acetaminophen tablets, the health ministry has recently raised the supply prices of these tablets.