E-DRUG: South Africa News (cont'd)

E-drug: South Africa News (cont'd)
---------------------------------------------

With reference to the interest about the medicines regulatory authority
in South Africa, I trust that the following information will assist to
clarify some of the issues, and provide access to background
information for those wanting to pursue the matter further.

Links to all the information are available from the HealthLink web site:
http://www.healthlink.org.za (for the convenience of those needing to
use GetWeb to retrieve the text, the direct URLs are also given below)

The Medicines Regulatory System in South Africa: Review and proposals
for reform
http://www.healthlink.org.za/hlink/info/medicine/content.htm

   This is the document produced by the task team which was
   appointed by the Minister of Health in SA, Dr Nkosazana Zuma, in
   January 1998 to review the existing process for the regulation of
   medicines in SA and to make recommendations on this.

   Overall this document provides rational comments and
   recommendations, although there are clearly some issues that will
   not be acceptable to some. The review was also necessarily
   conducted over a very short period and has highlighted numerous
   areas which will require further in-depth investigation.

Current Happenings
http://www.healthlink.org.za/hlink/news/news.asp

   On this page we have attempted to capture the essense of public
   comment on the whole issue, mostly by linking to online newspaper
   articles.

   The press release as mentioned in the previous post is also
   available here. It would appear that the directorate staff of the
   Medicines Control Council have been moved from their positions, and
   a replacement found. More information on this should be available
   later. The Minister has made the assurance that critical activities of
   the authority will continue during the process of transition.

DRUGINFO Discussion
http://www.healthlink.org.za/hlink/info/druginfo.htm

   More detailed discussion will hopefully occur on the South
   African-based email discussion forum. Interested people may wish to
   follow this through the web page interface, or subscribe to the list
   by sending email to:
   lyris@healthlink.org.za
   with the following text in the email message:
   subscribe druginfo Firstname Surname

Regards,

Candy Day
Information Manager
HealthLink, Health Systems Trust
Tel: +27 31 3072954 http://www.healthlink.org.za
Fax: +27 31 3040775 candy@healthlink.org.za
PO Box 808, Durban, 4000, South Africa
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