Korea Research-based Pharmaceutical Industry Association (KRPIA), a group of multinational drugmakers operating in Korea, has recently changed its Korean-language name, in word-for-word translation, from Korea Multinational Pharmaceutical Industry Association to Korea Global Pharmaceutical Industry Association.

KRPIA will change the word “multinational” into “global” to convey the group’s purpose and intention more appropriately as well as reflect its activities more correctly, the association said. It will use the changed name from April, it added.

KRPIA won the approvals of its new Korean name from the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety last month and completed its registration procedure.

“There have been views, in and outside of the association, that the word ‘dagukjeok’ (Korean for multinational) has a somewhat negative image,” said an association official when asked why the association had to change its Korean title. “The recent name change has reflected such opinions.”

The association’s English name and its abbreviation of KRPIA will remain unchanged, though, he said. KRPIA, established in 1999, has about 40 foreign pharmaceutical companies as its members.

The decision to stick to its English name was not free from controversy, however. Korean research institutions pointed to the name as being arrogant, saying. “You are not the only research-based pharmaceutical companies operating in Korea.”

Industry executives noted that Koreans’ time-honored adherence to “single nation and single race” might have prompted the group of multinational businesses to change their Korean name. The squabbles about names are out of step with the times, especially in a country that depends on foreign trade for 85 percent of its economic growth, they added.