mPharma, a leading pan-African healthcare technology company, has reaffirmed its commitment to providing access to affordable healthcare solutions in Africa.
The CEO and Co-Founder of mPharma, Gregory Rockson, disclosed this during the virtual launch of its impact report held on Thursday, April 28, 2022. The launch was attended by the former Minister of Health-Ghana, Alex Segbefia, representing the former President of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama, and Head of Value Creation-Gabon Sovereign Wealth Fund, Serge Amissah.
Speaking at the occasion, Mr. Rockson noted that the contribution of mPharma to addressing the challenge of healthcare cannot be overemphasied, given its role during the peak of COVID-19. He stated that the company since its inception has deployed a lot of innovative strategies to improve access – not only to medications but also to essential healthcare services such as molecular diagnostics testing.
He disclosed further that the company’s intervention is geared toward addressing the issues of affordability and access to prescription drugs caused by excessive margins charged by various stakeholders along the drug supply chain.
“We needed a solution to remedy the challenge of availability, accessibility and affordability of drugs to provide value for 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 not only expanded 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 a step closer to our goal of making medicines more affordable to patients as we directly control prices for all mutti pharmacies,” he said.
He noted further that the company remains committed to building an African in good health. He stated that it had recently secured US$35million in funding as the first tranche of a significant financing round for business operations.
According to him, “the funding will drive the expansion of our network of facilities and further improve our tech infrastructure”.
He explained further that the company has 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-out free COVID-19 tests and millions of COVID-19 test kits across government institutions, private labs and organizations 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 of Ghana, H.E. John Dramani Mahama, congratulated mPharma on promoting good health for all Africans while declaring the impact report’s launch. He further urged the company to keep pushing for technology-based, patients-centred, community-focused approaches which can meet the needs of patients irrespective of their location or financial status.
Also speaking at the launch, Head of Value Creation-Gabon Sovereign Wealth Fund, Serge Amissah, expressed his delight in supporting the health sector’s rebuilding in Gabon. He noted that health is one essential resource for future generations, and that is why the Fund partnered with mPharma to work out models for rebuilding the central medical store of Gabon.
