PORT ELIZABETH South Africa (Reuters) – South Africa plans to spend $2.2 billion over two years to buy HIV/AIDS drugs for public hospitals, a government minister said on Monday, as a study shows the prevalence of the virus is rising.
Speaking at a manufacturing plant of drugmaker Aspen Pharmacare, Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies said the government aims to buy three quarters of the drugs from local manufacturers.
“We are on the cusp of a very important tender worth 24 billion rand ($2.2 billion) by the Department of Health that is for the procurement of anti-retrovirals for 2015,” Davies told reporters at Aspen’s factory in the coastal city of Port Elizabeth.
(Reporting by Tiisetso Motsoenen; editing by David Dolan)