This newspaper's Heo Ji-yoon and Park Soo-hyun were selected as winners of the Korea Science Journalists Association's "first-half 2026 science reporting award."
The Korea Science Journalists Association said on the 21st it selected five planned series for the "first-half 2026 science reporting award," including ChosunBiz's "the mystery of drug distribution" series. The first-half science reporting awards are sponsored by the Korea Foundation for the Advancement of Science & Creativity (KOSAC), the Council of Heads of Government-funded Research Institutes, and Merck Korea.
ChosunBiz reporters Heo Ji-yoon and Park Soo-hyun were selected for the "Merck medical journalism award," given in the pharmaceutical and bio fields, for their "the mystery of drug distribution" investigative series.
This project is a four-part investigative report that traced the entire drug supply chain from production to wholesalers, hospitals, pharmacies, and patients. It analyzed recurring drug shortages, illegal distribution of medical narcotics, and phantom inventory not as isolated incidents but as problems of supply chain structure and data management systems, and it presented overseas cases and policy alternatives.
The judges said, "It stood out for analyzing the drug supply chain, which is directly linked to public health, from a structural perspective," and noted, "It provided a multidimensional look at how data gaps and inefficiencies in the distribution structure affect public health and the National Health Insurance finances."
During the reporting process, the team interviewed various experts and on-site stakeholders from the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the Ministery of Food and Drug Safety, the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service (HIRA), the National Assembly Health and Welfare Committee, academia, pharmaceutical companies, the distribution industry, hospitals, and pharmacies. They also conducted a comprehensive analysis of HIRA research projects, National Assembly materials, and government statistics, and compared them with drug distribution systems in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe, and Japan.
After the reports, discussions on improving the drug distribution system continued among the government, industry, and patient and consumer groups. The Welfare Ministry agreed on the need to discuss improving the distribution structure, including the proliferation of small wholesalers, and said it would push in the second half for discussions on standardizing "bundle numbers (aggregation)" to enhance traceability of drug logistics and data linkage.
The Korea Science Journalists Association said, "Drug distribution is a core public infrastructure directly tied to public health, National Health Insurance finances, and access to medicines, but there have been few reports that analyzed the supply chain itself in depth," adding, "This project identified the structure in which opacity of information and data gaps across the supply chain lead to various social problems such as management of medical narcotics, shortages of essential medicines, inventory waste, and increases in distribution expense, and it presented feasible policy alternatives by balancing diverse perspectives from government, academia, and industry."
[the mystery of drug distribution] view the series
For the first-half science article award, Dongascience Daily News Team reporters Jo Ga-hyun and Lee Byung-gu's "research institutes in chaos," News1 Business Desk reporter Hwang Deok-hyun's "the Korea Forest Service plants climate-vulnerable species despite the climate crisis," and The Kukmin Daily's Issue Investigation Team (Kim Pan, Kim Ji-hoon, Lee Kang-min)'s "one year after the wildfire, the wounds that haven't healed" were selected.
The "research institutes in chaos" project provided a multidimensional look at the structural problems of government-funded research institutes through on-site reporting and researchers' testimonies, while the report "the Korea Forest Service plants climate-vulnerable species despite the climate crisis" tracked the gap between government policy and on-the-ground reality in responding to climate change, analyzing policy loopholes and their social impacts. The "one year after the wildfire, the wounds that haven't healed" project tracked additional deaths not captured in official statistics after the wildfire and showed respiratory and psychological aftereffects through on-site reporting and medical interpretation.
Alongside ChosunBiz, The Asia Business Daily's "overseas stem cell treatment trips" series, which also won the Merck medical journalism award, conducted in-depth reporting on regulatory loopholes and lax oversight in the advanced bio sector.
The awards ceremony for the "first-half 2026 science reporting award" will be held at the opening ceremony of the "2026 science journalists conference" at 1 p.m. on the 28th at the Korea Science and Technology Center in Gangnam-gu, Seoul.