Preliminary Review of Medical Advertising

On October 27th, 2005, The Constitutional Court repealed the old law regarding advertising by the medical industry. Because the old law had been repealed, it was necessary to create a new law to take its place. Under the previous law on medical advertisement, both the advertisers and the industry were less regulated. Thus there was a concern about the potential widespread damage because of the lax controls regarding the advertisement of medical products. On January 3rd, 2007, a new law was passed to put tighter restrictions on medical advertising. The new law allows for higher quality advertising, allowing the consumers to make a more reasonable and safer decision, while stopping advertisements trying to exaggerate the functions or efficacies of certain medical products. The new system has been developed to better protect both the patients and the medical institutes. For this system to work, the cooperation and self regulation of the Korean Medical Association, Korean Dentist Association, and the Association of Korean Oriental Medicine is needed along with the cooperation of the Department of Health and Human Services.