Dramatic turn of events in legal fight over ivermectin
25 February 2021
The civil rights organisation AfriForum today announced a dramatic turn of events in the fight for the legal use of ivermectin.
AfriForum and dr. George Coetzee are involved in a legal challenge against the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) to allow doctors to prescribe ivermectin that is formulated for human use to treat patients with COVID-19.
AfriForum and its legal team recently concluded that this medicine – which can be used to treat people who contracted COVID-19 – had been legal all along because SAPHRA had failed to publish a notice in the Government Gazette (as the Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965 requires) that requires registration of ivermectin as medicine. Moreover, SAPHRA has so far kept this fact from the public.
Hannes Strydom – the well-known pharmacist, owner of the Pharma Valu pharmacy group and former Springbok rugby player – has just brought a court application to put these facts before court when the court applications of AfriForum and other organisations, also the ACDP, are heard simultaneously on 29 to 31 March this year.