.. Launches impact report

By Chioma Obinna

A leading pan-African healthcare technology company, mPharma has said that the various innovative strategies was deployed to address issues of affordability and access to prescription drugs caused by excessive margins charged by stakeholders along the drug supply chain.

It also reaffirmed its commitment to providing access to affordable healthcare solutions in Africa.

Speaking during a virtual launch of its impact report attended by the former Minister of Health, Ghana, Mr. Alex Segbefia, representing the former President of Ghana, H.E. John Dramani, and Head of Value Creation, Gabon Sovereign Wealth Fund, Serge Amissah, the CEO and Co-Founder of mPharma, Mr. Gregory Rockson noted that the contribution of mPharma to addressing the challenge of healthcare could not be over-emphasised, given its role during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

He stated that the company, since its inception, has deployed a lot of innovative strategies to improve access, not only to medications but to essential healthcare services such as molecular diagnostics testing.

Rockson disclosed that the company’s intervention was geared towards addressing the issues of affordability and access to prescription drugs caused by excessive margins charged by the various stakeholders along the drug supply chain.

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“We needed a solution to remedy the challenge of availability, accessibility, and affordability of drugs to provide value to patients. To address availability and accessibility, we began with a pilot in Ghana, our QualityRx program, which provides an innovative and affordable financing solution for struggling mom-and-pop pharmacies with a history of high performance. 

“The programme offers funding for refurbishment, inventory, customer management, and technology costs. By “reviving” these pharmacies, we did not only expand our pharmacy network but, most importantly, increased access to affordable drugs. Pharmacies under the QualityRx model operate under the brand “a mutti pharmacy.” With QualityRx, we came to a step closer to our goal of making medicines more affordable to patients as we directly control prices for all mutti pharmacies”, he said.

Pledging to build good health in Africa, he stated that it had recently secured $35 million in funding as the first tranche of a significant financing round for business operations.

According to him, the funding would drive the expansion of our network of facilities and further improve our tech infrastructure.

He explained further that the company had become an essential factor in providing solutions to the numerous problems caused by the pandemic. The company has leveraged its partnership with esteemed partners such as Breyer Capital in rolling our free COVID-19 test and millions of COVID-19 test kits across government institutions, private labs, and organisations in eight African countries.

“We recognised that the private health sector is a significant partner in healthcare delivery, and we anticipated African governments facing challenges in rolling out free COVID-19 tests. We proactively leveraged our relationship with mPharma investor Breyer Capital to establish a partnership with Sansure Biotech to secure one million COVID-19 test kits and 150 Polymerase”.

In his remarks, former President Ghana, H.E. John Dramani, congratulated mPharma on promoting good health for all Africans while declaring the launch of the impact report. 

He urged the company to keep pushing for technology-based, patients-centered, community-focused approaches that can meet the needs of patients irrespective of their location or financial status.

Also speaking, Head of Value Creation, Gabon Sovereign Wealth Fund, Serge Amissah pledged their support to rebuilding of the health sector in Gabon, adding that health is one essential resource for future generations, and that is why the Fund partnered with mPharma to work out models to rebuild the central medical store of Gabon.