Health committee vote to finally reject political interference in medicine regulation is the right decision

Today the Health Committee decided finally to reject ministerial interference in medicines regulation. We hope that this decision will finally put an end to a proposal from the health ministry that would have delayed or denied access to life-saving drugs to South Africans by politicizing the approvals process.

A clause voted on today, after vigorous debate in the committee, will stipulate that that approval of medicines be based on grounds of quality, efficacy and safety only.

Over the past few weeks, the health committee has been discussing a proposal in the Medicines Amendment Bill for a two tier system for the regulation of medicines, with the second tier involving approval by the minister on political grounds.

Although the committee rejected this proposal two weeks ago, a summons to the ANC members of the committee to a meeting with the Health Minister resulted in the clause being reintroduced in an amended form.

However, in debate on the clause today, ANC members were slowly convinced of the danger of the minister's proposal and eventually agreed to reject it. The clause has now been removed from the Bill which is being voted on today and which will be presented to parliament later this year for voting.

Statement issued by Mike Waters MP, Democratic Alliance spokesperson on health, September 3 2008