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Insights Centre
Sectors

Medical and pharmaceutical

Where care is, who cannot reach it, who is expanding, and how much of the region's medicine is made at home.

See the city maps

SADC exports of the pillar's goodsUS$973m2024
Deals in the last 12 months11US$14m where the value is confirmed · 36 tracked in all
Subsectors83 with trade data

What this page answers

  • Where are the hospitals and clinics, and how many people live more than an hour from one?
  • Where are private hospital groups and pharmacy chains expanding?
  • Which countries make medicines locally, and how dependent is each on imports?
  • Which hospitals and plants are announced or being built?

Seychelles leads SADC on life expectancy

Life expectancy at birth, years, latest year for each country. Click a bar for that country's medical and pharma page.

020406080Seychelles76.3Mauritius73.8Botswana69.3Malawi67.6Namibia67.5Tanzania67.2Comoros67.0Zambia66.5South Africa66.3Angola64.8Eswatini64.3Madagascar63.8Mozambique63.8Zimbabwe63.1DRC62.1Lesotho57.8median 66.4

Source: World Bank·dotzedw Insights Centre

Subsectors

8 in this pillar

Hospitals

Tracks
Hospitals by level and owner, private groups' footprints, new and expanded hospitals, specialist services, travel time to a major hospital.
Signals ahead
Hospital construction tenders, private groups' expansion plans, medical scheme growth.

Select a figure for its trend. Source: dotzedw deals tracker.

Open these deals in the deals tracker

More figures for this subsector are being added.

What SADC sells abroad across medical and pharma

SADC exports by subsector, 2024, US$. A product can count in two subsectors.

Medicine and vaccine manufacturingUS$619m+10% on five years earlier
Pharmacy and medicine distributionUS$394m-4% on five years earlier
Medical devices, diagnostics and laboratoriesUS$354m+3% on five years earlier
Source: CEPII BACI·dotzedw Insights Centre

Who is moving

Open in the deals tracker

11 deals in the last 12 months across SADC, placed in subsectors by what they say.

Sources and method