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In This Open Letter

SA’s R137-billion pharmaceutical industry could be dispensing some real innovation…

Last week, Amazon announced it’s launching prescription‑vending kiosks with QR checkout and virtual pharmacist support in the US this December. You know, to eliminate the extra trip to the pharmacy.

The challenge closer to home

To combat long queues, overburdened clinics and loads of missed medicine pickups in SA, the Government launched a CCMDD programme in 2014 that lets chronic patients collect pre‑packed meds from external pick‑up points closer to home or work.

It was not without its issues, but the idea of medicine vending is not a foreign concept: In Alexandra (JHB), Right to Care and Right ePharmacy piloted an “ATM pharmacy” that dispenses repeat chronic meds in under three minutes and connects patients to a remote pharmacist via video.

The pilot reportedly cut waiting times, reduced clinic load and gave patients 24/7 access (weekends and public holidays) in a shopping centre setting.  

We’ve also seen PharmaShop24, powered by Alpha Pharm and Shell, deploying pharmaceutical vending machines capable of dispensing 90+ over‑the‑counter pharmacy essentials and bay products inside Shell Select petrol station forecourts.

The private sector opportunity

For chains like Clicks and Dis‑Chem, which see month‑end surges in script collection, vending machines (or in‑store kiosks) could act as express “script pickup bins” for stable chronic scripts, reducing queue pressure and freeing up pharmacists.

We have the need: SA has ~8M people with HIV requiring lifelong Anti-Retroviral Therapy, nearly 50% of us will develop chronic non-communicable diseases at some point, and treatment-intensive TB is extremely common.

There’s a real opportunity in providing convenient, chronic meds that are as easy as buying something from a vending machine. The question is where and how fast we scale it?

We’re watching this space.

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Your 2 cents…

Indeed, Corne. Let’s hope BIG can help with that. 💸

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