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Medico-Legal
UK competition authority fines Aspen Pharmacare R45m
The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has imposed a £2.1m (R45m) fine on Aspen Pharmacare for entering into an illegal agreement that allowed it...
European Commission wants feedback on Aspen's proposal
The European Commission has requested feedback on a proposal by Aspen Pharmacare to cut prices on six cancer drugs by three quarters, to remove...
Judge sceptical about Bayer settlement of Roundup claims
Bayer AG shares have slumped after a US judge questioned part of the company's recent multibillion-dollar settlement over its glyphosate-based weed killer Roundup, reports...
Gabon's decision to decriminalise homosexuality welcomed
The UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) has welcomed a decision by Gabon to decriminalise homosexuality, joining a growing number of countries in Africa that...
UK proposes maximum jail sentences for violence against emergency workers
Maximum jail sentences for violent offences against emergency workers could be doubled to two years in England and Wales, under proposals put forward by...
Eastern Cape Health MEC lambasted for 'slothful' approach to litigation
Eastern Cape Health MEC Sindiswa Gomba has been sent packing by Eastern Cape High Court (Mthatha) Judge Richard Brooks in a R23m medical negligence...
Dis-Chem appeals excessive pricing conviction and R1.2m fine
Dis-Chem is appealing its excessive-pricing conviction and its R1.2m fine by the Competition Tribunal, arguing that it does not have dominance in the face...
Fita appeals COVID-19 health ban on tobacco sales
The Fair-Trade Independent Tobacco Association (Fita) has applied for leave to appeal against the ruling by the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) that the sale...
SIU move against former head of Gauteng Health over Life Esidimeni fraud
The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) has pounced on government officials and public representatives who defrauded the government of more than R10.6m under the guise...
COVID-19 database: Amendments around privacy
Although the law permits the National Health Department to develop and maintain a national database to assist in combatting the spread of COVID-19, which...
African Peer Review report on lockdwon rights’ violations
A new draft report by the African Peer Review Mechanism on governance during COVID-19 assesses the impact of lockdowns and states of disaster or...
Criminalisation raises HIV risk fivefold for MSM living in Africa
Men who have sex with men (MSM) living in sub-Saharan African countries where homosexual activity is severely criminalised are at a nearly five times...
Intended beneficiaries still awaiting silicosis pay-outs
The landmark silicosis settlement reached in 2018 has not brought financial relief for many of its intended beneficiaries, Rapport reports. After 12 years of...
Controversy swirls around Western Cape JP over tobacco challenge
By making a decision a lawyer said he had never seen before in 33 years of practice, controversial Western Cape Judge President John Hlophe...
High Court upholds Tiger Brands application for listeriosis information
The Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) has upheld Tiger Brands' bid to compel third parties to provide critical epidemiological information related to the listeriosis class action...
R4.3m for botched treatment at KZN's Grey's Hospital
A woman who had to have her leg amputated because of medical negligence at Grey’s Hospital, Pietermaritzburg, has been awarded R4.3m in damages, reports The...
Bayer to pay $10.9bn in Roundup cancer settlements
Chemical firm Bayer is to pay up to $10.9bn to settle cancer claims linked to its Roundup weed-killer. According to a BBC News report,...
Culpable homicide case against JHB doctors postponed
The case against paediatric surgeon Professor Peter Beale and anaesthetist Dr Abdulhay Munshi has been postponed to 31 August at the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court,...
High Court reverses reinstatement of Cuban-trained SANDF medics
The Pretoria High Court has overturned a previous judgment reinstating 36 soldiers who were dismissed by the SA National Defence Force (SANDF) for being...
Zimbabwe Health Minister charged with coronavirus corruption
Zimbabwe Health Minister Obadiah Moyo has been charged with corruption related to Zimbabwe’s irregular awarding of a major contract to a new Dubai-based company...
Arrest of 'doctor' whose bogus cures allegedly resulted in 3 deaths
A Greek man accused of fabricating medical qualifications to pose as a doctor, whose bogus cures allegedly resulted in three deaths, fell under suspicion...
'New' expert cannot testify in UK brain injury case
The UK High Court has refused an insurer permission to rely on a new expert whose evidence reduced the estimated life expectancy of a...
CTN firm pays R600,000 to settle charge for overcharging
A Cape Town-based chemical firm has agreed to pay a settlement amount of R600,000 for allegedly charging excessive prices for hand sanitiser. A report...
East London doctor's defamation claim against EFF over COVID-19
Whether it is defamatory to say that medical doctor is ill with the coronavirus remains unresolved for the time being, following the striking from...
Brazil court orders publication of pandemic statistics
A Brazilian Supreme Court judge has ordered Jair Bolsonaro’s administration to resume publishing complete COVID-19 statistics after moves to suppress such information prompted accusations...
Clicks to appeal 'medicine factory' ruling
Clicks says it will appeal against the Western Cape High Court ruling that found it owns a drug-making facility, which is illegal for a...
California appeals court hears arguments in Roundup cancer case
A California Appeals Court has heard arguments in the first case that went to trial over allegations that Bayer AG’s glyphosate-based weed killer Roundup...
Medical scheme investment policy restriction lifted
Long-term insurers offering investment policies to medical schemes are now exempt from sub-regulation 4.2(1) of the 1998 Long-term Insurance Act – along with any...
Doctor on bail after being caught in Hawks' sick note sting
An East London medical doctor, arrested for allegedly selling a sick note to an undercover Hawks agent, was released on R3,000 bail by the...
Snubbed BAT joins court action to overturn SA cigarette ban
British American Tobacco (BAT) SA, the local division of the world’s second-largest cigarette producer, has joined an array of groups and companies trying to overturn...
Firm fined R76,000 in first contested masks price hikes case
The Competition Tribunal has found a Pretoria-based company guilty of hiking the prices of face masks. Babelegi Workwear and Industrial Supplies CC was fined...
Company disputes Competition Tribunal finding on sanitiser pricing
A Cape Town chemical company has been reported to the Competition Tribunal for excessive pricing on hand sanitiser during the COVID-19 disaster, reports TimesLIVE. The...
Illegal circumcision guilty plea was under 'non-existent Act'
An Eastern Cape man who admitted to performing an illegal circumcision has escaped a jail sentence – but only, reports TimesLIVE, if the prosecution does...
Cyber-attacks on global healthcare industry red-flagged
The CyberPeace Institute worked with world leaders to petition the UN to for greater prevention efforts against cyber-attacks plaguing the global healthcare industry during...
High Court scuppers Mkhize's plans for pre-emptive state quarantine
This week Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize again raised the possibility of compulsory state quarantine as a pre-emptive measure for those potentially at risk, in...
Eastern Cape health and labour departments slug it out over hospital closure
An unprecedented legal battle is looming after health and safety inspectors from the Labour Department shut down Frere Hospital in East London amid concerns...
J&J stops selling its iconic talc baby powder in North America
Johnson & Johnson will stop selling talcum-based baby powder in the US and Canada after being ordered to pay out billions of dollars in...
Parliament must address question of healthcare indemnity during COVID
Parliament has remained silent on any form of temporary legal indemnity for healthcare professionals in South Africa as a result of deaths due to...
New directive on handling COVID-19 mortal remains
A detailed ministerial directive on handling the mortal remains of people who succumb to COVID-19 infections in hospital and at home has been gazetted,...
Companies fined R1.5m for face mask gouging
Two more companies have agreed to jointly pay a R1.5m fine for excessive pricing of face masks during the COVID-19 outbreak, reports EWN. Sicuro...