Clicks has received new pharmacy licences from the Department of Health and is rolling out new pharmacies across South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Tuesday, 21 January 2025, Clicks announced that the new licences followed after it resolved the Unicorn Pharmaceuticals licensing matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Unicorn Pharmaceuticals was the manufacturing arm of the Clicks Group and faced licensing problems due to regulatory issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In May 2016, the Independent Community Pharmacy Association (ICPA) complained to the Department of Health that Clicks’ ownership of Unicorn violated regulations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The association argued that regulations prohibited pharmacies from owning pharmaceutical companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It resulted in a prolonged legal battle, and in March 2023, the Constitutional Court ruled in favour of the ICPA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Department of Health stopped processing new Clicks pharmacy licenses in May 2023., forcing the company to address the issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In August 2024, Clicks sold Unicorn Pharmaceuticals to ensure it abided by the regulations and court ruling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Department of Health subsequently started granting Clicks new licenses. To date, it has received 27 new licences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Clicks announced that it had opened eleven new pharmacies in November and December 2024 and plans to accelerate the expansion programme in the months ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This rollout will strengthen Clicks\u2019 position in the South African market and support its growth strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The company\u2019s trading update for 20 weeks to 12 January 2025 showed it increased group turnover by 8.1%. Retail sales were up 8.7%, and distribution turnover was 9.5% higher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The group’s retail sales, which includes Clicks, The Body Shop and Sorbet corporate stores, increased by 8.7%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Turnover from Unicorn Pharmaceuticals, which was sold on 1 August 2024, has been excluded from the current and prior periods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe disposal of Unicorn Pharmaceuticals has no impact on the turnover of the group or distribution segment,\u201d Clicks said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Clicks opened 11 new pharmacies in November and December 2024 and plans to accelerate the expansion programme in the months ahead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":807897,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[4268,21495],"class_list":["post-807896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-clicks","tag-unicorn-pharmaceuticals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=807896"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807896\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":807898,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807896\/revisions\/807898"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/807897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=807896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=807896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=807896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}