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Botswana's HIV Patients Relieved as Legal Battle Over Medicine Ends

Mqondisi Dube

   GABORONE, BOTSWANA - There was a collective sigh of relief for more
   than 350,000 HIV-positive patients in Botswana, after the southern
   African country's Court of Appeal ruled in favor of the government in a
   legal tussle over the supply of life-prolonging anti-retroviral (ARV)
   drugs.

   In January, Botswana's government was taken to court by a major ARV
   supplier that cited irregularities in the awarding of a contract for
   the provision of the drugs. The High Court ruled in favor of that
   company, Portfolio Pharmaceuticals, and the supply of ARVs was halted
   until the matter was resolved.

   The move sparked a countrywide shortage of the critical drug, which the
   government said had left thousands of lives at risk.

   On Friday, the country's Court of Appeal overturned the lower's court's
   judgment in favor of the government.

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