Alignment, not speed alone, is key to timely access. South Africa has a relatively formalised, multi-institutional system for introducing health innovations, but adoption does not always translate into timely, equitable routine access.
This report examines how new medicines, vaccines, diagnostics and medical devices are introduced into South Africa’s public health system. It draws on two linked components: a multi-case health policy analysis across the four technology categories, and four case studies: the retrospective introductions of the BPaL-L regimen for drug-resistant TB and GeneXpert MTB/RIF, and the prospective cases of adult TB vaccine preparedness and lenacapavir for HIV prevention.
