Sunshine Act Takes Effect in South Korea

In early 2017, South Korea joined the global transparency movement and enacted a “Sunshine Act” similar to others found around the world. The law requires pharmaceutical and medical device companies operating in South Korea to prepare an aggregated expenditure report if they have provided economic benefits to healthcare professionals and others employed at medical institutions during a fiscal year. Interestingly, while the scope of the Korean Sunshine Act is broader than the United States law, it does not require companies to submit the aggregated report and any supporting documents to the government unless it is determined to be necessary by the Minister of the Ministry of Health and Welfare of Korea. Therefore, it follows that the collected data will not be made public. The covered recipients for Korean Sunshine Act can be categorized into four groups: (1) pharmacists; (2) herbalists (including persons working for the relevant pharmacy); (3) “medical personnel”, which includes physicians, dentists, acupuncturists, midwives, nurses); and (4) medical institution founders (including the representative, director and other employees of a juristic person) or persons working for the relevant medical institution for the purpose of sales promotion, such as adoption of drugs or inducement of prescription. Types of reportable economic benefits include: Product samples; Academic conference sponsorships; Honorarium provided to a covered recipient for conducting post-mark...
Source: Policy and Medicine - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs