South Africa: Delayed drug registrations hard to swallow

Delays in registering antiretroviral (ARV) medication may keep cheaper, more patient-friendly drugs out of reach as South Africa prepares to launch the world's largest tender for medicines. In a letter to Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, the Minister of Health, the South African HIV Clinicians Society called on the country's drug registration body, the Medicines Control Council (MCC), to fast-track the approval of certain ARVs, the generic versions of others, and fixed-dose ARV combinations that combine multiple ARVs into a single pill.