What Is the Single Exit Price (SEP)? South Africa’s Medicine Pricing System

South Africa regulates private-sector medicine prices through a mechanism that is unusual internationally: the Single Exit Price, or SEP. Introduced in 2004 under the Medicines and Related Substances Act, the SEP is the one and only price at which a manufacturer may sell a medicine to anyone other than the state.

One price for everyone

Before the SEP, discounts, rebates and bonuses to different buyers made real medicine prices opaque. The SEP abolished that: every pharmacy, wholesaler and hospital buys a given product at the same published price. The only additions allowed downstream are a regulated logistics fee and a regulated dispensing fee charged by the pharmacy.

The SEP applies to the private sector. The state procures medicines separately through national tenders, usually at substantially lower prices.

How prices change

Manufacturers may not raise the SEP at will. Once a year, the Minister of Health publishes a maximum permitted annual price adjustment, informed by inflation, exchange rates and international pricing. Manufacturers can increase prices up to that percentage — or choose not to. Price decreases are allowed at any time.

Looking up a Single Exit Price

The Department of Health publishes the full SEP database, and the community-run Medicine Price Registry (medicineprices.org.za) makes it searchable. Each entry lists the product, pack size, NAPPI code and current SEP.

HealthSA’s search combines this pricing data with SAHPRA registration status, so a single search shows both what a medicine costs and whether — and how — it is registered. Because the SEP is the same everywhere, if a private-sector quote differs materially from the published SEP plus the regulated dispensing fee, it is worth querying.