The Department of Health on Tuesday reiterated its warning that its disputed new medicine-pricing laws are in force in spite of a Supreme Court of Appeal ruling to the contrary.
Welcoming the Constitutional Court’s setting of a date to hear the next leg of the medicine-pricing challenge, it said the regulations remain in force until the Constitutional Court makes a final decision on the matter.
Departmental spokesperson Solly Mabotha said this is the opinion of the department’s legal advisers, in spite of the Supreme Court of Appeal ruling handed down in December that the controversial regulations are ”invalid and of no force and effect”.
However, attorney Anthony Norton of law firm Webber Wentzel Bowens said that as the representative of a group of pharmacists in the matter, the firm believes the unanimous judgement by all five judges is the correct one and the laws cannot be resuscitated by the department.
The new laws ban discounting, limiting prices to a ”single exit price” throughout the supply chain and capping dispensing fees at R26.
Many pharmacists reacted by introducing ”facilitation” fees on top of the dispensing fees, saying the new laws do not cover their running costs. — Sapa