A senior health official welcomed the Cape High Court’s decision on Friday to dismiss an application aimed at overturning the medicine-pricing regulations, saying it will benefit the South African consumer.
”The South African consumer is the major winner here,” said Dr Humphrey Zokufa, chief director of pharmaceutical policy at the Department of Health.
Zokufa said the judgement means that savings realised from the manufacturing side will now be passed on to the consumer with the implementation of the regulations.
”We are obviously happy with that,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ivan Kotze, executive director of the Pharmaceutical Society of South Africa (PSSA), said the society will have to consider whether to take the matter on appeal.
”We haven’t seen the details of the split judgement,” he said.
His sentiment was echoed by an attorney for New Clicks, Lawrence Helman.
”We will need to look at the reasons for [the] judgement and consider the matters before taking instructions,” he said.
The five-minute judgement comes after a full bench, headed by Judge President John Hlophe, had reserved judgement following two days of legal argument ending on June 18.
New Clicks and the PSSA claimed the regulations, which the government introduced in an attempt to make medicine prices affordable, were so vague as to be unenforceable.
They also said the regulations breached the constitutional right to access to health services because the dispensing fee, set at a maximum of R26, threatened pharmacists’ viability. — Sapa