North Korea's prescription for
prosperity By Ting-I Tsai
TAIPEI - North Korean drug companies hope
that updated versions of traditional medicines
promising - among other things - to treat
impotence and kidney dysfunction can help cure
what ails the isolated Stalinist country's
stagnant economy.
In the hope of earning
badly needed hard currency by exploiting the
nation's ancient herbal-medicine traditions, North
Korea's pharmaceutical companies are producing
"various traditional health products through
[modern] technologies". The effectiveness
of
these medicines, however, has not been
scientifically proved.
The medication that
has drawn the most attention is probably
Neoviagra-YR, developed by the Korea Oriental
Instant Medicinal Center, which promises to
improve a person's sexual capabilities, ease bone
pain, and cure kidney dysfunction and
arteriosclerosis. "I got my cute baby after I
took two boxes of YR. This is definitely good
medication," its advertisement quoted Pyongyang
resident Kim Ming-ze, 35, as saying.
Another patient who supposedly benefited
from the medication was Kim Chong-ze, 45, who
said: "I hadn't had sex for three months. My
sexual function normalized after I took four boxes
of YR. I can promise that this is the magic
medication of the 21st century." However, the
telephone number of the Pyongyang-based company
given on the advertisement was wrong.
In
Beijing's Korean neighborhood, a booth at a market
sells a box of Neoviagra for US$20.
Boothkeeper Pak Mun-bin emphasized that
Neoviagra is far more effective than Pfizer's
Viagra, but failed to explain how it can be used
to treat both bone pain and erectile dysfunction.
He added that that the booth sold as many
as 700 boxes per month, with South Koreans being
major customers.
"North Korea may be a
small country. but its herbal medicines are
nonetheless better than Chinese ones. At least
there are no fake medicines," Pak said.
If
Neoviagra is not quite exotic enough for some
customers, North Korea's Pugang Pharmaceutic Co
offers another choice, the "Queen's Appeal", which
is described as "a volcano of energies and the key
to happiness".
Its official website
described it as a herbal dietary elixir formulated
from the extracts of wild Epimedium
koreanum, which "was used by the kings, the
queens and the court ladies in ancient Korea.
Makes you wild in sexual life and brings you great
energy. Adverse effects: none. Contra-indications:
none."
The North Koreans are also flogging
medications that they claim are capable of
preserving youth.
Among the "health foods"
being introduced, the most widely promoted is
"Royal Blood-Fresh". According to the package, it
is a traditional health food "formulated via a
high tech from fermented soybeans of the olden
royal palace". The manufacturer, Pugang
Pharmaceutic Co, claims it will "make you younger
and cleverer. Students will result better in
exams." It recommends taking one to two tablets
for prevention, three tablets three times daily
for chronic cases, and five to nine tablets three
to eight times daily for acute cases. A 160-tablet
bottle sells for US$39 in Beijing.
For
those worried about bird flu , the North Koreans
claim to have a better cure than Tamiflu, the
Kumdang-2 Injection, which is "extracted from
Kaesong Koryo ginseng cultivated by specific
micro-elementary fertilizers involving some
ultra-highly purified medicinal rare-earth
elements". An English research team, its
introduction claims, concluded that the medication
could "prevent and cure the virus-originated
epidemic diseases including Bird's Flu".
Its official website described its service
as a "worldwide daily supply", with medication
distributed to its representative offices in 13
countries around the world, including Cuba, Syria,
Japan, the United Kingdom and Zimbabwe. A Pugang
Han Yong Gon sales representative said any
international purchase is deliverable by courier
and customers can receive their medication within
days.
The Pugang Pharmaceutic Co, founded
in 1983, has developed numerous medications by
incorporating Korea's traditional herbs in the
production of "high-technology" products,
including Aphorodisia 2, a cure for vaginal
diseases. The company says it operates nine
state-of-the-art pharmaceutical factories in
accordance with the industry's GMP (good
manufacturing practices) standard and has averaged
an annual turnover of $25 million. All of the
medications are legally approved by the local
medical authority.
According to Western
experts familiar with the nation's medical
services, most of the medications are widely
distributed to local pharmacies.
One
expert, speaking on condition of anonymity, said:
"North Koreans, Chinese, South Koreans, Japanese,
etc, are always looking for 'natural' ways to
reverse aging, cure [or prevent] all diseases with
one potion, and to strengthen their sexual
potency. And if they can make money while doing
it, so much the better," the expert said. Even if
doubts do exist about the efficacy of the
so-called "miracle medicines", the expert noted:
"It's just that they want to believe in them."
Taiwanese pharmacists and experts in
traditional Chinese medicine question the
legitimacy of the North Korean medicines.
Gau Churn-shiouh, a professor of the
National Taiwan University's school of pharmacy,
noted that these medications "sound more like
old-fashioned Chinese medications that could cure
everything" that have no sound scientific basis.
Furthermore, experts in Chinese
traditional medicine pointed out that all kinds of
medications are poisonous, and taking them without
diagnosis could lead to illness.
Hung
Chin-lieh, also a professor at the National Taiwan
University, said that the efficacy of ginseng is
relatively limited compared with other herbs, and
is not applicable to every single patient.
"The efficacies claimed by the
advertisements look more like exaggerations. The
main problem is that the ingredients of these
medications are so vague. Without adopting the
measure of 'evidence-based medicine', the North
Koreans really should not have promoted the
efficacies," Hung said.
Ting-I
Tsai is a freelance journalist based in
Taipei.
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