Netcare calls for medicine price inquiry

Londiwe Buthelezi Medicine pricing should be the first factor that the market inquiry into the private health-care sector looked at, Netcare chief executive Richard Friedland said, decrying that the group paid 40 percent more for medicines in South Africa compared with those overseas. “There is a view that we are subsidising government drugs procurement, but that’s pushing our costs,” Friedland told Business Report after the release of Netcare’s financial results for the six months to March. Friedland’s statement supports recent claims by Médecins Sans Frontières...