How much should you be paying for your medicines?

Did you know that medicine prices are regulated in South Africa? It’s actually quite difficult to find this information. You need to go to www.mpr.gov.za and download the latest single exit price database. Then you need to open up a very large spreadsheet and search for your medicine. To find generics you need to search by ingredient and discard all those alternatives that have a different strength (200mg vs 400mg) and dosage form (e.g. table vs syrup). Once you’ve done that, you need to add pharmacist dispensing fees as well as VAT. The process is complex and well beyond the abilities of most people. We’ve simplified it and made this information available through a simple mobile interface.

Using this application you can:

Know what to expect to pay when you get a prescription from your doctor
Find possible generics for a branded medicine. Ask your doctor if these medicines are viable alternatives.
Ensure that you are not being overcharged for your medicine.

Here are some ideas for how this application can be useful:

When your doctor prescibes a medicine, quickly check on your phone for alternatives and ask whether the brand name product can be replaced with a generic.
If you’re on chronic medication you can periodically check to see whether the price of your meds has increased.
While waiting in the queue at the pharmacy, you can look up your medicine and find out how much it will cost you and what alternatives you can ask the pharmacist for.
If you look up a particular medicine often, you can bookmark the page so that you can quickly refer to it.
Also, if you’re a developer, hook-up your application to our API. It will save you much time and effort and give you a head-start if you need to use medicine prices for your own project.