For Development of Koryo Medicine

Dr. and Associate Professor O Su San is a researcher at the Pharmacy Institute under the Academy of Medical Sciences who has devoted himself into the research of Koryo medicine for over 50 years.

After graduating Pyongyang University of Medical Sciences with a pharmacy major, he was assigned to the then Korea Academy of Medical Sciences. It was the 1970s when he made a resolve to develop Koryo medicines efficacious for treatment of cardiovascular diseases.

At that time, various kinds of imported western medicines were widely used in treating cardiac patients.

But, sometimes, the cardiotonic drugs produced complications among patients.

With a determination to develop new Koryo medicines suited to the physical constitution of Koreans, he buckled down to the research. He climbed many rugged mountains to collect medicinal herbs and read many books on the Koryo medicine. He made painstaking efforts to find out adequate components of Koryo medicines for treatment and the rate of their composition.

Through hundreds of pharmaceutical experiments and repeated failures for over ten years, he finally succeeded in developing a new method of making Koryo medicine for extracting necessary medicinal components from raw materials abundant in the country.

On this basis, he developed various kinds of Koryo medicines highly efficacious for treating heart and liver diseases, including Ginko leaf arteriosclerosis tablet and Silymarin dragee.

He also wrote valuable medical books, including “Pharmacopoeia of the DPRK” and “Manual for Koryo Medicines.”

He said: The Koreans are a resourceful nation that produced many Koryo medical books such as Tonguibogam. I will contribute to the development of Koryo medicine by making more medicines suited to the physical constitution of the Korean people.”

He is a Merited Scientist.