Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor is set for tough questions about state-owned pharmaceutical company Ketlaphela at the ANC’s policy conference next month, as the government’s ambitions to manufacture HIV/AIDS drugs remain unrealised 10 years after the idea was born. The project is also behind the target mentioned by President Jacob Zuma in his state of the nation address in 2016, when he said Ketlaphela would start supplying the Department of Health with antiretrovirals (ARVs) from the 2016-17 fiscal year, which ended on March 31. On Tuesday, Pandor conceded the target had not been met. "Ketlaphela has not begun providing ARVs to the health system as finalising partnership agreements and preferential agreements requires much more time. Discussions with likely partners have been positive, however final sign-off has a range of caveats such as up-front order commitments from the health sector. That is difficult to achieve, given various statutes on procurement and the PFMA...
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