Stakeholders have called for the acceleration and necessary enabling environment for African health-tech innovators in the supply chain to scale up public health services even as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to disrupt globally trade and travels.
The stakeholders at a webinar themed “Innovation in Health Product distribution – Key trends and opportunities in Nigeria” said this is important to the response on COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on access to essential healthcare products like diagnostics and therapeutics, including medicines and medicine consumables coming in and out of Nigeria. This was hosted by Nigeria Health Watch in partnership with Salient Advisory.
Salient Advisory’s senior consultant, Yomi Kazeem, in a presentation on the study “Innovations in Health Product Distribution in Sub-Saharan Africa” said that innovators are currently expanding services by providing end-to-end patient journeys, digitally enabled distribution players, adding channels for telemedicine consultations, while retail pharmacy outlets are adding digitally enabled distribution operations.
The study, conducted in four African countries, including Nigeria to bring to light health tech startups that are using technology to improve the distribution of health products and information, Kazeem said, found that the existing regulatory environment, particularly for telemedicine and e-pharmacy businesses and funding were topmost challenges to accelerating and scaling up of African health-tech innovations.
The research’s scope included companies providing solutions for inventory management, B2B marketplaces for product ordering and innovators offering patient engagement services, as well as e-pharmacies and e-commerce operators.
Director, Salient Advisory, Remi Adeseun stated that “Medicines play a vital role in health systems and most Nigeria patients believe that their care is incomplete unless there are drugs accompanied with it”.
Founder WellaHealth, Dr Ikpeme Neto at the webinar stated “WellaHealth provides access to affordable healthcare and inequality” The organisation that offers micro insurance products that cover the common healthcare challenges that people face, including a basic healthcare plan for malaria to gives access to malaria testing and treatment.
Founder Whispa Health Morenike Fajemisin, said “Whispa Health addresses access to sexual and reproductive health information”, as the app enables its users have private chats with doctors about any aspect of their intimate health and to order sexual health products like HIV tests and condoms which could be delivered to homes or offices in plain packaging to disguise what is inside.
Founder, Shelf Life, Michael Moreland, explained how his parent company Field, had launched Shelf Life as a service that allows pharmacies to sign up in a bid to outsource their supply chain. Shelf Life supports in the planning, fulfillment and finance of the stock so that pharmacies can focus on sales.
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