Consumers could pay more for medicine if a dominant IT company in the pharmaceutical industry maintains its majority market share. BCX and Vexall are fighting over the computer programme which is used by hundreds of retail pharmacies in the country to dispense medicines.
Vexall says BCX’s dominance influences pricing. Most pharmacies in South Africa use the same computer system to dispense medicine. On Monday, Vexall which is a new entrant in the pharmaceutical industry approached the Competition Commission for interim relief against BCX.
Dischem is the majority shareholder in Vexall. Telkom subsidiary BCX owns the copyright to the computer programme called Unisolv. It’s this programme that is used to dispense medicine and determine prices.
Vexall says BCX controls at least 70 percent of the pharmaceutical industry. It claims that if this doesn’t change, BCX will continue to increase the prices of pharmaceutical products unilaterally, to the detriment of consumers.
In other news – Actress Linda Mtoba has to get used to doing things without her baby
For the first time since becoming a mom, actress Linda Mtoba spent a full day away from her daughter, and surprised herself by handling her emotions like “a winner”.
The actress took to Instagram to share that despite the obvious difficulty of coping without her baby being next to her, she managed to have fun on her first weekend away from her baby. Read more
Source: eNCA
