Pharmacy comparison: Where can pensioners buy affordable medicine?
Part of being older is having a longer list of medicines you buy each month.
This pharmacy comparison focuses on medication, vitamins and prescriptions from two of the country’s largest retail pharmacies: Clicks and Dischem.
Which is cheaper?
Pharmacy Comparison
While this analysis focuses on full-priced products, promotions can lower the cost.
At Clicks, prices can decrease when you buy more of an item, especially on supplements.
Dischem routinely offers lower prices (typically 10%) to members of their Better Rewards program.
Over-the-Counter Medication
In this comparison, Dischem is 80 cents cheaper overall than Clicks on over-the-counter (OTC) medications.
| Medication | Clicks | Dischem |
|---|---|---|
| Paracetamol 500mg | Clicks 24 tablets R25.99 | Dischem 20 tablets R25.99 |
| Brufen extra strength 10 tablets | R50.99 | R49.99 |
| Dispirin regular strength 300mg 12 tablets | R27.99 | R29.99 |
| Sinucon 20 tablets | R44.99 | R43.99 |
| Dazit 5mg 10 tablets | R94.99 | R88.99 |
Vitamins and Supplements
Clicks has two house brands.
The first is the Clicks brand; the second is the Payless brand.
Dischem likewise has two house brands: Dischem Gold and Lifestyle.
According to this analysis of 5 common vitamins and supplements, Clicks is more cost-effective than Dischem.
Vitamins from their house brand are 22% cheaper than the cheapest option at Dischem.
| Supplement | Clicks | Dischem |
|---|---|---|
| Vitamin C 500mg 100 tablets | Clicks R69.99 | Lifestyle R84.99 |
| Calcium 30 tablets | Payless R51.99 | Zinplex chewable R63.99 |
| Vitamin B12 60 tablets | Clicks Essentials R160 | Biogen or Gold R149.99 |
| Multivitamin 30 tablets | Payless R39.99 | Lifestyle (capsules) R109.99 |
| Vitamin D 1000iu 30 tablets | Payless R47.99 | Lifestyle R139.99 |
Prescription medication
The focus was on heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes, and the commonly prescribed medications for these illnesses.
One in three South Africans has hypertension, according to reporting by the University of Cape Town (UCT).
And according to the University of Pretoria (UP), one in nine South African adults has type 2 diabetes.
These are the prices of the cheapest generic brands quoted by Dischem and Clicks pharmacists.
In three of the four generic brands, prices are almost identical.
Amlodipine is the only exception.
The generic at Clicks is 20% cheaper than Dischem.
| Medication (30 tablets) | Clicks | Dischem |
|---|---|---|
| Atorvastatin 10mg | R42.00 | R42.06 |
| Amlodipine 5mg | R60.00 | R74.22 |
| Lisinopril 5mg | R39.30 | R39.58 |
| Glimiperide 1mg | R100.00 | R100.31 |
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.