The interferon purchased by the Army of South Africa illegally to Cuba at the beginning of the covid-19 pandemic for almost two million dollars (more than 30 million rand) will have to be definitively destroyed.
The controversial acquisition was part of the agenda this Wednesday in the South African Parliament, where the Defense and Military Veterans Committee met and several critical reports were presented with the actions of the Armed Forces.
According to the South African drug regulatory agency, Sahpra, the entire operation could have cost the country more than $ 16 million (R 260 million). The drug, commercially called Heberon Alfa R, should have been returned to the Island on November 30 and, if not, confiscated and destroyed, because its expiration date has either expired or is about to do so.
One of the reports presented concludes that there was “inadequate planning” in the purchase that resulted in an “indefinite contract,” and that the Army failed to comply with the Drug Law.
“No acquisition process was followed”, says the medium Defense Web citing said report, “since the drug was purchased under the Thusano Project, a military agreement between Cuba and South Africa, and all the expenses incurred for Heberon are irregular.”
Of the 970,885 vials of Heberon acquired in Cuba, the note continues, Sahpra only authorized the use of 10 in a single patient, in October 2020, and did not grant more permits.
Report recommendations include disciplinary action and money recovery, as well as preventing repeat incidents in the future
Report recommendations include disciplinary action and money recovery, as well as preventing repeat incidents in the future. The opposition, for the moment, has declared that the Government of Cyril Ramaphosa – who is not in the country because he is on an official visit to Nigeria – “must act”, and anticipates that “heads will roll.”
The scandal with this drug jumped just a year ago, when an audit began to determine how the Army was able to violate multiple regulations for importing and registering drugs, since Sahpra had banned the Cuban Heberon for the treatment of COVID-19, considering it inappropriate .
Then, the Armed Forces alleged that they bought it not as a medicine specifically, but a biological product aimed at prevention against what at that time they considered it could be a bacteriological war.
Interferon alpha 2B, produced by the state-owned BioCubaFarma and used in the treatment of viral infections caused by HIV, the human papillomavirus and hepatitis types B and C, was one of the drugs with which COVID was treated. -19 in China in combination with other drugs.
It is a natural compound that interferes with viral multiplication by creating an inhibition mechanism in the body’s first level of response and that Cuba tried to promote on a large scale as an ideal solution against the coronavirus. However, the available scientific literature has not been able to document its usefulness, and there have even been contradictory results in studies carried out in different parts of the world.
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