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The first shipment of the drug landed in South Africa in April, along with Cuban medical personnel.
FILE: Minister of Defense Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula. Image: GCIS.
CAPE TOWN – The Department of Defense has been questioned in Parliament about the illegal importation from Cuba of almost one million vials of antiviral drug, Interferon, at a cost of R260 million.
The first shipment of the drug landed in South Africa in April last week, along with Cuban medical personnel.
The drug is not registered for use in South Africa and the South African National Defense Force (SANDF) only applied to the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) for authorization for its use in bulk months later, when it was denied.
The SAHPRA rejected two of those requests from the Department of Defense, in August and October, before discovering in November that the drug was already in the country.
Department of Defense officials have admitted that procurement rules were breached and the law was broken, but have tried to defend their action by arguing that the defense force was facing biological warfare when the COVID-19 pandemic occurred. last March.
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The plan was for Cuban interferon to be used as an immune booster for troops on the front line at COVID hotspots and border defense and procurement was considered an emergency.
So far, only 10 vials of the drug have been used with the permission of SAHPRA and on a single person.
The rest are stored cold in a military warehouse in Pretoria.
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The chairman of the Parliament’s defense committee and military veterans, Vusumuzi Xaba, said that the importation of interferon violated almost all the laws governing the landing of a drug in South Africa and wanted to know what Defense Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula was going to do. about.
“Violation of Section 21? Yes, obviously we will have to take action, and in my opinion, part of the action should be the compromise that they agreed on together with SAHPRA. “
Mapisa-Nqakula has ordered an investigation into the matter. The SA Military Health Service wishes to coordinate with SAHPRA to carry out clinical trials of the drug.
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