Korean J Med Hist.  2013 Dec;22(3):847-878.

The Institutionalization of Pharmaceutical Administration After the Korean Liberation: Focusing on Regulating the Pharmaceutical Affairs Law(Yaksabeop) in 1953

Affiliations
  • 1Department of Medical History and Institute for History of Medicine, College of Medicine, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea. jerryq@yuhs.ac

Abstract

The pharmaceutical administration under U.S Military Government in Korea and government of the Republic of Korea aimed at cleaning up the vestiges of Japanese imperialism which the pharmaceutical administration attached police administration and preparing with legal and systemic basis after the Korean liberation. The pharmaceutical bureau under U.S Military Government in Korea was reorganized as the independent division. The pharmaceutical bureau focused on preserving order, narcotics control and the distribution of relief drug. U.S Military Government proceeded supply side pharmaceutical policy for the distribution of relief drug without constructing human and material infrastructure. After the Korean War, Korean society asked the construction of system for nation building. Korean national assembly regulated National Medical Law(Gukmin uiryobeop) for promotion of public health in 1951. The Pharmaceutical Affairs Law(Yaksabeop) was regulated in 1953, and it prescribed the job requirement of pharmacist, apothecary, and drug maker and seller, and presented the frame of managing medical supplies. The Pharmaceutical Law originally planned the ideal pharmaceutical administration, but it rather secured the status of traditional apothecary, and drug maker and seller. On the contrary, though the Pharmaceutical Law guaranteed the traditional druggists, it did not materialize reproduction system such as educational and license system. It means that the traditional druggists would be degenerated in the near future. After the armistice agreement in 1953, Korean was in medical difficulties. Korean government was suffered from the deficiency of medical resources. Because of destruction of pharmaceutical facilities, Korean had to depend on United States and international aid. The Pharmaceutical Affairs Law did not cleaned up the vestiges of Japanese imperialism, and compromised with reality lacked human and material infrastructure. As a result, the law became the origin of pharmaceutical disputes such as pharmacist voluntary prescription, the separation of pharmacy and clinic, the compounding of traditional medicines, and the traditional pharmacist system. However, it was meaningful that the law was the turning point of the institutionalization of pharmaceutical administration after the Korean Liberation.

Keyword

the institutionalization of pharmaceutical administration; the Korean Liberation; the Pharmaceutical Affairs Law(Yaksabeop); U.S. Military Government; pharmacist; traditional apothecary; drug maker and seller

MeSH Terms

Asian Continental Ancestry Group
Dissent and Disputes
Drug and Narcotic Control
Equipment and Supplies
Humans
Institutionalization*
Jurisprudence
Korea
Korean War
Licensure
Military Personnel
Narcotics
Pharmacists
Pharmacy
Police
Prescriptions
Public Health
Reproduction
Republic of Korea
United States
Narcotics
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