As the naphtha crisis originating in the Middle East spreads to the medical field and raises concerns about instability in the supply of medical products, the government said it has already secured, or is pushing for priority supply of, raw materials needed to produce essential medical products such as infusion solutions and syringes. It stressed that it would respond strictly to unfair practices that disrupt market order, including price collusion and hoarding.
Minister Jung Eun-kyeong of the Ministry of Health and Welfare said at a joint briefing of related ministries held at Government Complex Seoul on the 7th, "Rising raw material prices due to disruptions in oil supply from the Middle East are affecting the entire production and distribution of medical products," and "Related ministries are making all-out efforts to ensure there are no disruptions in the supply of medical products used by the public."
As the supply of petrochemical raw materials such as naphtha wavers due to the Middle East war, there are reports that in primary care hospitals and clinics and pharmacies in Korea, prices of medical consumables such as syringes, infusion bags, medicine bottles, and pill pouches are rising or becoming harder to obtain.
In response, the government said it is rolling out countermeasures divided into production, demand, and distribution stages. First, at the production stage, centered on the Ministery of Food and Drug Safety, it is conducting daily checks of corporations' raw material holdings and production status, and sharing information with the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy to maintain a cooperative system so that the supply of key raw materials such as naphtha proceeds without disruption. Through this, it plans to prevent a decrease in production volumes of essential medical products such as syringes and packaging for infusion solutions.
In particular, it said it has completed advance measures to ensure there are no supply issues with packaging for infusion solutions for the next three months. It added that for medical devices such as syringes and needles, it is identifying difficulties through industry roundtables and pushing for priority supply of raw materials.
A field-centered system to identify items with supply instability is also in operation. The government is sharing on-the-ground conditions daily with medical organizations such as the medical association, the hospital association, and the pharmacists association, and is preemptively identifying items expected to face supply instability.
Many medical products, like infusion sets, combine pharmaceuticals with petrochemical-based accessories, and non-pharmaceutical consumer goods such as sterile packaging are also essential for infection control, making substitution difficult. Packaging for dispensed medicines and syrup bottles likewise depend on petrochemical products, a feature that makes their supply chains complex.
Taking these characteristics into account, the government is conducting a comprehensive review from securing production raw materials to distribution bottlenecks and issues with regulation and reimbursement systems. The Minister emphasized, "We will detect factors that could destabilize supply in advance, prepare response measures tailored to product characteristics, and take swift action through cooperation with related ministries."