Pharmaceutical industry

Over the last thirty years, South Africa has developed a medicines regulatory authority with internationally recognized standing. Over the past five years, it has been transformed in order to improve its performance and regulatory processes. The Medicines Control Council (MCC) is a statutory body that was established in terms of the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act, 101 of 1965, to oversee the regulation of medicines in South Africa.

This website was created as a resource for people interested in drug quality and drug information and will provide vital information to those working in drug management programs worldwide. The focus is to provide information on priority medicines that are of interest to health care professionals working in developing countries. In addition, the site will discuss drug quality issues-focusing on substandard and counterfeit drugs.

Very useful web site with clinical practice guidelines, full text of Association journals and a compilation of health and medicine-related Internet sites for the use of physicians in their practice and research.

Healthy Skepticism - formerly MaLAM (Medical Lobby for Appropriate Marketing) is an international organisation which aims to defend health professionals and the public from marketing practices which may be detrimental to health.

Excellent catalogue of package inserts, searchable by trade name or generic name

The registrar of medicines, Mandisa Hela, admitted to MPs yesterday that the Medicines Control Council could not cope with its workload, and was in dire need of an overhaul.

Fake and substandard drugs in Africa by immoral medical companies is a serious worry. Malaria continues to be a serious concern. It affects more than 100 countries and about 40percent of the worlds population. It causes between 300 and 500 million infections and about a million deaths each year. It is estimated that malaria kills a child every 30 seconds in spite of the disease being entirely preventable and curable. At the eighth World Health Assembly meeting in 1955, it was resolved to begin a worldwide eradication campaign of malaria. Though the campaign was eventually abandoned and considered a failure, it registered resounding successes in eradicating malaria from large regions across the globe. The successful application of insecticides and the effectiveness of antimalarial treatments formed the cornerstones of the programme.

The health department has called for bids for the next AIDS-drug tender, a move keenly awaited by local pharmaceutical firms that invested heavily in developing capacity to make generic copies of patented antiretroviral medicines. SA has the worlds biggest caseload of HIV patients, with about 5,4-million people infected with the virus that causes AIDS.

Francinah Ndala, pastor and chairperson of the township Ladies Forum, is no ordinary member of the community she is a statuesque woman with a slightly intimidating air, who proclaims that when I talk, everybody listens. Altogether an ideal candidate to participate in the community advisory group for microbicide clinical trials in Soshanguve, a township outside South Africa's capital, Pretoria.

The Medicines Control Council has ordered JSE-listed Enaleni Pharmaceuticals to halt production of medicines at its Durban facility because it does not meet manufacturing standards, it emerged yesterday.