(Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine)
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(College of Oriental Pharmacy, Wonkwang University)
Recently, more and more natural herbal products are investigated and used popularly. Pharmaceutical companies of Korea are very interested in developing herbal new drugs. And oriental doctors also need popular, modernized form of oriental drugs. The objective of this article is, first, to examine current situations of drug development in Korea, second, to know general concepts of patent and third, to think about new drug development and patent in oriental medicine's point of view. With consideration of oriental medicine's characteristics, concepts of new drug and patent should be improved. Therefore, the oriental pharmaceutical industry and developments of oriental new drugs could be inspired to further efforts.