Pharmaceutical giant Adcock Ingram has confirmed its delisting from the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) on 11 November 2025. The move marks the end of its 17-year run as a public company. This follows the finalisation of a R4.2 billion acquisition scheme by the Indian-based Natco Pharma. The company announced that it had fulfilled or waived all conditions precedent for the…
Category: Archive
Every Health Matters article, newest first. Use the search or browse by month to find older reporting.
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Clicks Digital Push to Enhance Online Delivery Services
Healthcare and beauty retailer Clicks is embarking on a significant overhaul of its e-commerce platform. Its digital push aims to capitalise on growing home delivery demand and significantly improve customer convenience. The move comes as the retailer acknowledged that its online performance has been “sluggish”. This sluggishness is due to limited delivery options and lead times, despite online sales growing…
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Clicks Eyes Pharmacy Expansion and Earnings Growth
Clicks has reported a robust 13.7% increase in full-year headline earnings. These earnings grew to R3.2 billion for the year ended August from R2.8 billion a year ago. The strong performance was underpinned by a significant expansion of its retail and pharmacy footprint. As Clicks eyes further pharmacy expansion, it is pushing its total store base to more than 990…
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Lower-Dose Immunotherapy Trials Expand Treatment Options
Ground-breaking new research suggests that dramatically lower doses or shorter courses of revolutionary immunotherapy drugs could be highly effective. This finding may eventually pave the way for wider global access to life-saving cancer treatments. Lower-dose immunotherapy trials are showing promising potential. Drugs like Merck & Co’s Keytruda and Bristol Myers Squibb Co’s Opdivo have transformed oncology. They boost survival rates…
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Sakeliga Mounts Legal Challenge Over Health Minister’s Actions
Business lobby group Sakeliga has sharply escalated the legal fight against the National Health Insurance (NHI) Act. They launched a new, two-pronged legal attack against Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi. This move directly counters the Minister’s recent attempt to pause the multiple constitutional challenges facing the controversial new law. The controversial NHI Act, which President Cyril Ramaphosa signed into law…
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Spar Acquires Aptekor Group in Retail Healthcare Expansion
Spar has acquired the Aptekor Group, a pharmaceutical wholesaler, in a strategic move to expand the retailer’s healthcare footprint. This is the foundational step in its ambition to create a national pharmaceutical distribution network for its Pharmacy at Spar banner. The acquisition firmly positions Spar to compete more aggressively within South Africa’s healthcare market. It provides the group with a…
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RAF Insolvency exposed by Senior Actuary
A former senior actuary at the Road Accident Fund (RAF) has delivered explosive testimony to Parliament. He described a controversial accounting change as an “accounting sleight of hand.” Management designed this to mask the fund’s actual insolvency and mislead the public. In a damning affidavit submitted to the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa), Itayi Charakupa, the RAF’s former senior…
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Ritshidze Report Highlights Decline in Services
A new report from the community-led monitoring group Ritshidze has exposed a “system-wide slide” in basic service delivery at South Africa’s public clinics. The report states this sharp decline, marked by critical staff shortages and failing patient systems, directly coincides with the drastic cuts to the US President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (PEPFAR) funding. These cuts were made earlier…
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RAF’s Unpaid Claims Cause Hospital Closure
Sunshine Hospital, a 200-bed private medical facility, has been forced into permanent closure due to financial insolvency. The closure was due to more than R300 million in unpaid, adjudicated claims from the Road Accident Fund (RAF). The details of the hospital’s collapse were laid bare before Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa). The hospital’s boss, Kenneth Ford, delivered damning…
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Malaria Progress Stalls as Resurgence Looms
The global fight against malaria has stalled after two decades of significant progress. Campaigners warned yesterday that a “perfect storm” of climate change, population growth, and funding gaps threatens a deadly resurgence. A new report by the African Leaders Malaria Alliance (Alma) and Malaria No More UK states that insufficient funding for increasingly costly prevention programmes is putting decades of…
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Road Accident Fund Bonuses Scrutinised by Scopa
The Road Accident Fund (RAF) paid R231.7 million in bonuses during a financial year. These Road Accident Fund bonuses came under scrutiny when, during the same year, the RAF received an adverse audit opinion from the Auditor-General of South Africa, as Parliament heard on Monday. The revelation, contained in the fund’s latest annual report, has become a focal point for…
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Bonitas Medical Scheme Faces Procurement Rigging Claims
Bonitas Medical Scheme, one of South Africa’s largest medical aids, manages a R20 billion fund. It is facing explosive allegations of systemic capture following the emergence of a new whistleblower report. A flash drive containing emails, draft contracts, and internal communications allegedly reveals a concerted effort. Senior executives, trustees, and favoured consultants aimed to rig procurement processes and redirect lucrative…