Pretoria company aims to lead SA in making key TB drug ingredients

By Catherine Tomlinson, December 4, 2024

Posted in: Access to Medicines, Focus, Healthcare system, HIV/AIDS, InFocus, Latest, Spotlight

Though several South African companies are producing HIV and TB medicines, the active ingredients that go into these medicines are usually imported from India or China. Now, a local company is planning to break new ground by making the active ingredients for two important TB medicines in Pretoria. Catherine Tomlinson zooms in on the company’s efforts and outlines some of the obstacles to getting such local production off the ground.

Pretoria company aims to lead SA in making key TB drug ingredients

South Africa’s AIDS response: Progress, challenges, and opportunities

By Salim S. Abdool Karim and Nikita Devnarain, November 28, 2024

Posted in: Access to Medicines, Comment, Focus, Healthcare system, HIV/AIDS, InFocus, Latest, Spotlight

Ahead of World AIDS Day 2024, Professor Salim Abdool Karim and Dr Nikita Devnarain argue that South Africa needs a concerted effort to reduce new HIV infections in young women and to prepare for the rollout of long-acting forms of HIV prevention alongside a well-functioning HIV treatment programme.

South Africa’s AIDS response: Progress, challenges, and opportunities

Where in SA someone lives determines how many ARVs they get at a time

By Elri Voigt, November 26, 2024

Posted in: Access to Medicines, Focus, Healthcare system, HIV/AIDS, InFocus, Latest, Spotlight

Whether or not someone living with HIV in South Africa gets a one- or three-months’ supply of antiretrovirals at a time depends partly on the clinic where they happen to go for HIV care. Ahead of World AIDS Day 2024, Elri Voigt unpacks the legal and policy issues relating to prescriptions and HIV medicine refills and asks why people living with HIV are treated so differently in different parts of the country.

Where in SA someone lives determines how many ARVs they get at a time

Why the fuss about long-acting antiretrovirals for HIV?

By Francois Venter, November 25, 2024

Posted in: Access to Medicines, Comment, Focus, Healthcare system, HIV/AIDS, InFocus, Latest, Spotlight

HIV prevention injections that can provide two, or even six, months of protection per shot have arguably been the biggest HIV story of the year. Ahead of World AIDS Day, Professor Francois Venter assesses the state of play and the critical next steps with these potentially game-changing new tools in the fight against HIV.

Why the fuss about long-acting antiretrovirals for HIV?

Why the Competition Commission’s decision on two cancer medicine cases could have much wider implications

By Catherine Tomlinson, November 20, 2024

Posted in: Access to Medicines, Focus, HIV/AIDS, InFocus, Latest, Spotlight, TB

There is a history of competition law being used to drive HIV medicine prices lower in South Africa. Now, two cases involving cancer medicines seem set to nail down what qualifies as “excessive pricing” in South African law – a legal development that could have far reaching implications for medicines prices in the country. Catherine Tomlinson unpacks the details.

Why the Competition Commission’s decision on two cancer medicine cases could have much wider implications

#InTheSpotlight | Where are we in the search for an HIV cure?

By Elri Voigt, November 12, 2024

Posted in: #InTheSpotlight, Access to Medicines, Focus, Healthcare system, HIV/AIDS, InFocus, Latest, Special Investigations, Spotlight

Highly effective treatments for HIV have existed since the mid-1990s. But while these treatments keep people healthy, we do not yet have a safe and scalable way to completely rid the body of the virus. In this Spotlight special briefing, Elri Voigt takes stock of where we are in the decades-long search for an HIV cure.

#InTheSpotlight | Where are we in the search for an HIV cure?

Women in SA could have access to a three-monthly HIV prevention ring by 2026

By Elri Voigt, November 4, 2024

Posted in: Access to Medicines, Focus, Healthcare system, HIV/AIDS, InFocus, Latest, Spotlight

A flexible silicone ring that slowly releases antiretrovirals is one of just two long-acting HIV prevention products registered for use in South Africa. Results from a new study might pave the way for a longer-acting version of the vaginal ring that provides three months of protection at a time, as opposed to one month with the current ring. Elri Voigt reports on these findings and looks at how the one-month ring has influenced HIV prevention choices in South Africa.

Women in SA could have access to a three-monthly HIV prevention ring by 2026

Accountability is critical at National AIDS Council, says new civil society leader

By Thabo Molelekwa, October 23, 2024

Posted in: Access to Medicines, Focus, Healthcare system, HIV/AIDS, InFocus, Latest, Spotlight, TB

HIV activist Solly Nduku was recently elected to the top civil society position at SANAC. Thabo Molelekwa asked Nduku and his newly elected deputies about their plans and priorities for the council.

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Accountability is critical at National AIDS Council, says new civil society leader

Highrises, hellholes and healthcare – Hillbrow’s heritage story

By Ufrieda Ho, October 16, 2024

Posted in: Access to Medicines, Gauteng, Healthcare system, Healthcare Workers, HIV/AIDS, InFocus, Latest, Provinces, Spotlight, TB

Hillbrow started out as Johannesburg’s first health hub in the late 1880s. It’s also been a suburb associated with pimps and prostitution, a middle finger to the Nationalist Party, and a key site of the HIV crisis. Today, it’s the forgotten flatlands of inner city decay … but in small pockets it stays true to its heritage of bringing healthcare to the city’s most overlooked.

Highrises, hellholes and healthcare – Hillbrow’s heritage story

Efficacy of 6-monthly HIV prevention jab confirmed in second major study

By Elri Voigt, October 14, 2024

Posted in: Access to Medicines, Focus, Healthcare system, HIV/AIDS, InFocus, Latest, Spotlight

In June, we heard what could be this year’s biggest HIV breakthrough: a twice-yearly injection can prevent HIV infection. Findings from a second large study of the jab has now confirmed that it works. Elri Voigt goes over the new findings and unpacks the licenses that are expected to facilitate the availability of generic versions of the jab in over a hundred countries, including South Africa.

Efficacy of 6-monthly HIV prevention jab confirmed in second major study

Why people stop taking their HIV treatment and what we can do about it

By Graeme Meintjes, Jonathan Euvrard, Sipho Dlamini, Lynne Wilkinson, and Andrew Boulle, October 3, 2024

Posted in: Access to Medicines, Comment, Focus, Healthcare system, HIV/AIDS, InFocus, Latest, Spotlight

Stopping antiretroviral treatment when you are living with HIV can result in increased HIV transmission, illness, hospitalisation, and eventually death. To combat such disengagement with HIV treatment, Professor Graeme Meintjes and colleagues argue we need smarter differentiated care and better education of healthcare workers, people living with HIV, and communities.

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Why people stop taking their HIV treatment and what we can do about it

Glenda Gray’s fierce fight for science, the COVID-19 ruckus, and the bathroom row about HIV drugs

By Biénne Huisman, September 16, 2024

Posted in: Access to Medicines, Focus, Glenda E. Gray, Healthcare system, Healthcare Workers, HIV/AIDS, InFocus, Latest, Spotlight

After a decade at the helm of the country’s primary health research funder, Professor Glenda Gray will focus again on doing the science. She tells Spotlight’s Biénne Huisman about her childhood, her passion for research, administering multi-million dollar grants, and a heated argument in the bathroom with an ANC bigwig.