9 [20] Although some weight may be given to the fact that the Registrar of Trade Marks raised no objection to the registration of ZEMAX, a court is at large to exercise its own discretion concerning the registration of trade marks.8 [21] Both ZEMAX and ZETOMAX are products that fall under Schedule 3 of the Medicines and Related Substances Act and may be sold only by pharmacists, a pharmacist’s intern or assistant acting under the personal supervision of the pharmacist, manufacturers and wholesale dealers, medical practitioners and dentists, veterinarians, practitioners and nurses or persons registered under the Health Professions Act 56 of 1974 and then only under strict conditions.9 Generally, only a medical practitioner may prescribe a Schedule 3 substance and a pharmacist may dispense it only on prescription. [22] In the replying affidavit Adcock sought to extend the market to pharmaceutical wholesalers, hospitals and state hospitals alleging that there was no guarantee that persons at these institutions responsible for buying products were either practising pharmacists or doctors. With regard to pharmaceutical wholesalers s 22A of Medicines and Related Substances Act requires a qualified pharmacist to oversee and control the buying and selling of pharmaceutical drugs. Large orders from, for example, private hospital groups and tender boards from the Department of Health, are negotiated with the pharmaceutical companies directly. Section 22C, in addition, requires wholesalers and distributors to be in possession of permits to carry out their functions, and the permits are to be issued only on such conditions ‘as to the application of such acceptable quality assurance principles and good manufacturing and distribution practices as the council may determine’ (s 22C(1)(b)). Regulation 19 of the General Regulations under Act 101 of 1965 imposes further limits by requiring the distributor or wholesaler to ‘appoint and designate as such a pharmacist who will control the manufacturing or distribution of medicines, Scheduled substances or medical devices’. The Medicines Control Council has also distributed a document ‘Good Wholesalers Practice for Wholesalers, Distributors and Bonded Warehouses’ 8 Judy’s Pride Fashions (Pty) Ltd v Registrar of Trade Marks 1997 (2) SA 87 (T) at 92C-E. The conditions under which a Schedule 3 substance may be sold, prescribed, possessed etc are set out in Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965, ss 22A ff. 9

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