SA litigation

[James Love <love@cptech.org>]

I think the NYT story on the SA litigation was wrong,
as do several sources in SA.  This is the Mail
and Guardian ariticle.   This is a different dispute
than the Section 15C matter.  

 Jamie


http://www.mg.co.za/mg/za/news.html#drugs

Court rules new medical laws invalid

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Friday 9.00am

THREE Pretoria High Court judges on Thursday upheld an
appeal by the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers' Association and
the Crop Protection and Animal Welfare Association to set aside
the new medical control laws.

A full bench of the high court found Judge H J Fabricius had
erred in his refusal to set aside the new legislation that effectively
opened up a loophole that made potentially dangerous drugs
legal.

The ruling by Fabricius was given at an urgent application on
May 28 by then President Nelson Mandela, former Health
Minister Nkosazana Zuma and several other parties to set aside
the act.

At the request of Zuma, President Nelson Mandela in April
declared the old law scrapped and the new South African
Medicines and Medical Devices Regulatory Authority Act was
implemented on April 30. What neither he nor Zuma realised was
that the law was not ready for implementation and that none of
the regulations and schedules which categorise drugs and
provide for who can buy, sell, prescribe and administer them was
yet in place.

The bungle left police powerless to prevent the abuse of
potentially dangerous drugs. Transvaal Judge President B M
Ngoepe, Judge J D M Swart and Judge R W Nugent ruled on
Thursday that the South African Medicines and Medical
Devices Regulatory Authority Act and Schedules are not valid
and that earlier legislation is still applicable.
Director-General of Health Jan Pretorius said in the urgent
application that neither Mandela nor Zuma realised an incorrect
procedure had been followed in the publication of the new
schedules.


-- 
James Love, Director, Consumer Project on Technology
I can be reached at love@cptech.org, by telephone 202.387.8030,
by fax at 202.234.5176. CPT web page is http://www.cptech.org