[Courtesy of Korea Phamaceutical Information Center]
The embattled office of South Korean President Park Geun-hye came under pressure Monday to account for the mysterious purchase of tablets used to treat an enlarged prostate.
A list of medicine used at the presidential Blue House included Proscar tablets, Park Young-sun, a senior lawmaker from the main opposition Democratic Park, said in a parliamentary hearing involving presidential aides.
She asked the presidential Blue House to disclose the name of Proscar users, insisting somebody there has received eight Proscar tablets every month for more than two years from December 2013.
No name was disclosed, but the legislator raised suspicions that such drugs might have been used for hair growth.
Finasteride, the generic name for the brand name of drugs Proscar and Propecia, was originally developed to treat enlarged prostate glands. But researchers discovered an intriguing side effect: hair growth.
In 1997, the US Food and Drug Administration approved a one-milligram dose of finasteride for the treatment of male pattern baldness.
Aju News Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
