South Africa: Independent Pharmacies Push for Greater Competitiveness

In brief

The Independent Community Pharmacy Association (ICPA) has applied for a Competition Act exemption that would allow independent pharmacies to collaborate through a proposed Independent Pharmacy Network. The commercially significant point is not what the exemption would permit pharmacies to do. It is what it would do to other market participants. If granted, suppliers of non‑Single Exit Price (SEP) and unscheduled medicines, distributors, medical schemes and administrators will negotiate with a single counterparty representing more than 1,200 pharmacies where they previously dealt with 1,200 individual price‑takers. Significantly, nothing about their own commercial response to that counterparty would be exempt. The comment window closed on 7 August 2026 and, therefore, the record before the Commission is now largely fixed. The live question for affected businesses is no longer whether to oppose the application, but how to position for the conditions on which it is likely to be granted.

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