Policies at a standstill due to absence of MFDS minister

in the new government’s national disease control policies and pharmaceutical industries

Personnel hearing not held due to confrontation between the ruling and opposition parties…Minister of MOHW position left unoccupied for over a month

Pharma industry longs for “specifics to be made on the establishment of the Pharma-Bio Innovation Committee”

With the ruling and opposition parties having difficulty coming to an agreement on the composition of the NA leadership, the prolonged policy gap in national disease control and prevention and the pharma-bio industry is intensifying due to the absence of the Minister of Health and Welfare.

 

President Suk-Yeol Yoon’s administration had set out to promote a roadmap for an emergency response to COVID-19 within 100 days of his inauguration and establish a Pharma-Bio Innovation Committee, but the position of the Minister of Health and Welfare that is required to perform both tasks has remained vacant since President Yoon’s inauguration.

 

On the 13th, the ruling and opposition party is butting head over the appointment of the National Assembly’s Legislative and Judiciary Committee chair and NA leadership.

 

In the prolonged absence of a head in the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the new administration has been deciding on national COVID-19 control and prevention policies without a minister, and the decisions are being by its two vice ministers.

 

The Ministry of Health and Welfare is reviewing whether to lift the mandatory quarantine measures that were imposed on confirmed COVID-19 patients after lowering the statutory infectious disease class of COVID-19 from Class 1 to Class 2 last month.

 

Regarding the removal of indoor masks, the Ministry of Health and Welfare has decided to keep the current measure as is and continue the existing measures for COVID-19 prevention and control.

 

Although the Ministry of Health and Welfare advocates the scientific evidence-based quarantine, even veteran civil servants are burdened by the fact that they must make decisions on COVID 19-related policies every day in the absence of a minister.

 

This gap in the appointment of the MOHW Minister has left various tasks including the addition of emergency treatment beds for COVID-19 and the antibody positivity rate survey on 10,000 citizens that were included in the 100-day roadmap for an emergency response to COVID-19 by the new administration at a standstill.

 

In particular, the Pharma-Bio industry awaiting on specific plans for the establishment of a Pharma-Bio Innovation Committee that is to be directly operated by the Prime Minister that President Suk-Yeol Yoon had selected as a national task.

 

The multi-ministry Pharma-Bio Innovation Committee is being established with the participation of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy; the Ministry of Science and Technology; the Ministry of Education; and the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety.

 

Officials from relevant ministries that were involved in the establishment will likely be dispatched to the committee under the Prime Minister’s Office, and the industry’s eyes are on how the committee will be constructed, its vision, role, and date of its launch, but the fact that no specific plan has been presented yet has left much to be desired on the industry’s part.

 

President Suk-Yeol Yoon’s administration had only presented the course of direction that the government would take with the Innovation Committee, that it will establish integrated governance that encompasses industry, technology, and healthcare to foster a biohealth innovation ecosystem and become a pharma-bio powerhouse.

 

Therefore, on when the Minister of Health and Welfare position will be filled after a series of procedures including the composition of the National Assembly members and the personnel hearing on the MFDS minister candidate Seung-hee Kim, is expected to directly affect the creation of national disease control policies and the specificities on the establishment of the Innovation Committee.

 

The deadline for MFDS minister candidate Kim's personnel hearing is the 19th, and if no hearing is held by the deadline, President Yoon may directly appoint Kim as minister.

 

However, it is unclear whether the appointment will be carried out without a hearing due to the many controversies surrounding candidate Kim, such as expedient real estate donations, violations of the Political Funds Act, and the abused ‘mom chance,’ etc.