DELAY FOR CONTROVERSIAL DRUG-PRICE RULES

The South African government's controversial medicine-pricing regulations, which were to have been introduced finally on Jan. 1 after a long-running legal battle between pharmacists and the health department, have once again been put on hold, according to Business Day Johannesburg.

The health department agreed to suspend implementing the new dispensing fees for pharmacists, the Pharmacy Stakeholders Forum (PSF) said.

This follows the legal teams of the department and the PSF reaching an agreement that implementation of the dispensing fee will be delayed pending the outcome of a legal challenge by the PSF to the fee regulations.

The agreement will bring a brief respite for small, independent pharmacies, which say their future is threatened by the capping of fees they may charge on medicine sales. The PSF has said that as many as 75 percent of pharmacies are at risk of closing.