The Herb Pharmaceutical Industry in South Korea

• In Event: A Critical Look into the Classification of Emerging Entities

Abstract

This paper presents an emerging entity of the herbal pharmaceutical industry in South Korea since the 1990s. After analyzing the governmental initiatives to mass-produce herbal medicines, the case of one biotechnology company that produces functional health foods and natural drugs is discussed. Naturalendo Tech (NeT) emerged as an exemplary venture biotechnology company that was acclaimed to excel in translating Korean medicines into novel pharmaceutical products. In 2015, NeT was at the center of public outcry over its market hit, the phytoestrogen product line purportedly containing Cynanchum wilfordii (baek shu oh). It was discovered that this plant was actually not present in the intended consumer health products, but a morphologically similar plant was being used instead. The subsequent public outcry exposed the entangled nature of the industry by posing the following question: How is quality, safety and efficacy of functional foods derived from Korean medicines being assessed and secured? This seemingly straightforward question placed the entire herbal pharmaceutical industry, from sourcing through to regulation and marketing, under intense public scrutiny. This case provides the entry point for analyzing the emergence of the herbal pharmaceutical industry in South Korea, focusing on tensions between globalizing strategies, regulatory regimes and the domestic market. The chapter shows that the industry is best understood as an asymmetric assemblage of post-colonial relations linking domestic and international regulatory authorities, consumer market agencies, techno-scientific research institutions, the academy, and medicinal plants.

Author

• Eunjeong Ma, Pohang University of Science and Technology