Pharmaceuticals are a crucial component of delivering healthcare, hence regulating pharmaceutical markets is a complex issue involving dynamic interplay of multiple actors. The South African healthcare industry is plagued with past problems and new ones created by cumbersome legislation, changing economic conditions and rapid cost escalation. The core objectives of the 2004 medicines pricing legislation were; effective care and use of resources; high quality services and responsiveness; accessibility and affordability of medicines for consumers. This study explores the impact of the new medicine pricing regulations on independent community pharmacies in KwaZulu-Natal, wherein 115 out of a total of 364 independent pharmacies participated. The main aim was to determine the number of pharmacies that closed and the emerging trends in this sector by qualitatively and quantitatively analyzing the legislation, policy implementation and its impact on various stakeholders. Data was collected via semi-structured interviews; a survey questionnaire and document analysis. The study revealed that, more consultation was needed for a sustainable dispensing fee since between 72 and 83 pharmacies had closed in KZN from 2003 to 2009; due to them being uneconomical. Tools used to illustrate legislative impact were Porter’s value chain, Force-Field analysis and the Fish-Bone diagram. The emerging trends underscored government’s need to provide a democratic environment conducive to small business growth, with the recommendation that policy makers strategically respond to the real world in which health sector reforms must be implemented. / Thesis (MBA)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2009.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2011. / This study analyses the effects of generic medicine competition on the market share growth and pricing of originator brand medicine in the South African private pharmaceutical market. The study is based on five years (2005 to 2011) of IMS Health market share data for 39 originator brand drugs that have been exposed to competition from generic substitutes from 2001. The results show that, for all the drug molecules included in the study pooled together, the price of an originator brand medicine relative to the weighted average price of its generics has a significant negative impact on the change of its market share. Results for the molecules pooled according to anatomical classes, as well as each molecule separately, show that in four out of the nine classes represented in the study and nine out of the 39 molecules the relative price of the originator brand medicine had a significant negative impact on its change in market share. The manufacturers and marketers of generic medicines would be well advised to offer their medicines at significantly discounted prices compared to the originator brands, as the results suggest that the market penetration of the generic product may depend heavily on the price the generics are offered at. Investigations into the prices of the originator brands in relation with the number of generic equivalents in the market show that the number of generics available in a specific market has a significant positive impact on the relative price of originators, thereby making originators relatively more expensive compared with their generic competitors, while at the same time the results show that the absolute price of the originator brand medicines declines as the number of generic equivalents in the market increases. This indicates that, from a policy perspective, reducing the barriers to entry for generic medicine once originator patents expire may have a significant role to play in reducing the cost of pharmaceutical drugs in the South African market.