The Minister of Health, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, has ASSURED Parliament that there is no shortage of ARV’s in South Africa and their distribution will not be disrupted.
Saying this after some of the companies that distribute them, it turns out that they are in trouble as they need to be rescued according to the business plan.
Motsoaledi took a deep breath while speaking at a meeting of the Health Committee in Parliament yesterday. The committee wanted an explanation that there will be no challenges in the distribution of drugs due to the problems faced by the two companies that produce them?
“We have drugs that can take three months to be distributed to those who need them without interruption. There are no problems or challenges in the distribution of ARV’s in this country, despite the fact that these companies are looking for help to be rescued.”
He said that is why the work of distributing these drugs as well as other drugs that are taken to hospitals, were given to different companies so that there would not be a shortage.
“If one company fails to distribute medicines and drugs, we go to another one that will be able to distribute them. There is no disruption in the distribution of medicines in this country.”
He said that they have plans to stop the shortage of medicines as they can see where there is a shortage.
“Provincial departments have enough drugs to distribute to the people. We have made it a priority to ensure that there is no shortage of drugs in this country because we know how much of a problem it would be if there was a shortage.”
He also revealed that there are about 6 million people taking ARV’s in this country.
Members of Parliament want to know where they stand on the fact that there is a company that will produce these drugs in this country?
Motsoaledi said that 70% of ARVs are bought in this country.
In this meeting, it was revealed that this job of distributing ARVs was given to 15 companies. These companies are given a scale that they must distribute. Another thing that has emerged is that the two companies that wanted to be rescued in terms of business, are now in a good financial position and have been carefully monitored to ensure that they do not fail to do this work.
Motsoaledi said that if there were any challenges for people to get the drugs, it would not be because his department failed to deliver them.
“There may be other problems that can make people not get ARV’s but not because there are problems on the part of the Ministry. There is no shortage of drugs, there is enough. People do not panic! We have plans to ensure that the delivery of these drugs is not interrupted,” emphasized Motsoaledi.
