The Africa Health Ventures Podcast
Business
In the heart of Nigeria's COVID-19 surge in 2020, Samuel Okwuada started receiving a string of phone calls from local pharmacies who were struggling to get stock during lockdown. They needed Samuel to deliver more essential medicines, in smaller quantities, to more locations, at the same or lower costs. This is an impossible equation for any traditional drug distributor to balance - but when it became clear they had no other choice, Samuel knew it was time to create something new.
This is how Samuel Okwuada pivoted his prior venture, a brick-and-mortar wholesale distributor, into a HealthTech startup that is setting new standards for delivery quality meds, reliably and efficiently, to pharmacists across Nigeria. Today's conversation is a case study on how small pharmacies in Nigeria have historically acquired their stock and how this approach is being disrupted with new technologies.
While improving health product distribution has a massive potential for impact, it is also a market rife with challenges, politics, and delays. Samuel recalls how, in order to receive regulatory approval for medicines distribution, he needed immense patience and resourcefulness. Patience, to wait the 2 years needed for government licensing, and resourcefulness, because in order to get licensed, he needed to finance an operational warehouse for 2 years with no revenue. Here we see the speed of technological innovation juxtaposed against the pace of brick-and-mortar operations. But Samuel knows there is a better future ahead and is paving the way for that future: one in which Nigerians can rely with confidence on their local pharmacies to provide high-quality meds when and where they are needed.
Remedial Health is connected to more than 100 pharmaceutical manufacturers and suppliers, including GSK, Pfizer and Astrazeneca, as well as Nigeria’s Orange Drugs, Emzor and Fidson Healthcare. Earlier this year, it was one of the African startups that took part in the prestigious Y Combinator programme, the most successful accelerator program in the world. It also banked US$1 million in pre-seed funding to power its growth.
To find out more, access the show notes at https://AidEvolved.com
Let us know what you think of this episode on Twitter (@AidEvolved) or by email (hello@AidEvolved.com)
AI for Health, Part 2: A Step Ahead
AI for Health, Part 1: Promise and Perils
The Medicine Supply Chain in Africa, Part 2: The Next 10 Years
The Medicine Supply Chain in Africa: from Manufacturer to Pharmacy (Part 1)
Introducing the Africa Health Ventures Podcast
Chuck Slaughter of Living Goods: Digital First Healthcare Saving Lives at the Last Mile
Dr. Agnes Binagwaho, Former Minister of Health of Rwanda
Investing in Healthcare with the World’s Largest Pure-Play Impact Investor
Technology, Innovation, and the Global Fund
Nicole Spieker of PharmAccess Foundation
Curt LaBelle, M.D., Managing Partner of the Global Health Investment Fund and the AXA IM Global Health Fund
Margot Cooijmans of Philips Foundation
Joseph Ssentongo of the Global Innovation Fund
Pippa Yeats of Turn.io: Sending a Lifeline to the People of Ukraine
Andy Bryant of Segal Family Foundation
Andy Pattison of WHO: 12 Days to Launch the Largest WhatsApp Service in the World
Hannah Subayi: From Billion Dollar Fund Manager to Pan-African Angel Investor
Creating New Ways to Fund Innovations in Global Health with Rebecca Distler of the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation
Season 3 Teaser: Donors and Investors in Digital Health / HealthTech
BongoHive: Building the Zambian Tech Sector from the Ground Up
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