Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang on Friday urged people to refuse to pay ”unjustifiable fees” that some pharmacists add on to the price of medicine and to opt for pharmacies complying with her regulations.
Writing on the African National Congress website in her capacity as ANC national executive committee member, Tshabalala-Msimang accused some pharmacy groups of ”fleecing” medical aids and causing its members to use up their benefits.
This follows a Supreme Court of Appeal ruling that drug pricing legislation introduced last year was invalid.
The Constitutional Court has set March 15 to hear their application to appeal this and the Department believes that this suspends the appeal court and brings the regulations back in force.
Pharmacists disagree with this interpretation, and many have introduced their own fee structure.
”Unfortunately as a young democracy, we still have a few in our society who are yet to be convinced that the Constitutional Court is the highest court in this country, particularly on this issue which has been argued on Constitutional grounds by both parties since the beginning of the case at the Cape High Court earlier last year,” she wrote.
The pharmacists believe that until the Constitutional Court actually rules on the case, the appeal court’s ruling stands and that securing a date for the appeal application is not enough.
She also questioned the pharmacists taking the matter to the appeal court before the Cape High Court ruled on it, and touched on the issue of ”transformation of the jury” that she said the case had raised. A large portion of the judgment was dedicated to why it believed it had the power to make the ruling.
She believed the regulations were consistent with regulations used in European Union countries and Australia.
Tshabalala-Msimang said that the manufacturing industry had since ”taken a more constructive approach” by engaging with government and presenting the necessary data to support their argument.
”This is definitely a more productive engagement that should characterise policy formulation and implementation in a sector as critical as the pharmaceutical industry,” she wrote. – Sapa