Twenty-four leading Africa-focused supply chain innovators are now reaching around 50,000 providers and delivering health products to millions of consumers directly, according to the latest market intelligence report by healthcare consulting firm, Salient Advisory.
Funded by the Gates Foundation, the report titled, “Leading Innovations Enabling Health Product Access in Africa,” finds that, amid difficult macro- economic realities and dwindling investment in African technology ecosystems, a select number of African health innovators are emerging as leaders.
Having operated for 10 years on average, the 24 leading innovators collectively now partner with 100+ manufacturers and 75 public health institutions, reaching around 50,000 providers (who serve hundreds of thousands of patients per day) and delivering health products to millions of consumers directly. Kasha made news capturing Series B investment last year, and has since gone on to build its health technology access platform and report annual revenues of more than $50 million in 2023 – the highest ever recorded by Salient’s research to date.
The 24 innovators featured in the report are (in alphabetical order): Chefaa, DrugStoc, Field Inc, Figorr, Grinta, HealthPlus, Kasha, LifeBank, Maisha Meds, Meditect, mPedigree, MYDAWA, Pendulum, PharmaSecure, Remedial Health, RxAll, Sobrus, Sproxil, Talamus Health, VIA Global Health, Viebeg, Wingcopter, Yodawy and Zipline.
One of the innovators, Kasha, which made news capturing Series B investment last year, has since gone on to build its health technology access platform and report annual revenues of more than $50 million in 2023 – the highest ever recorded by Salient’s research to date.
Like Kasha, innovators that offer digitally enabled Order and Inventory Management services to hospitals, clinics, pharmacies and drug shops appear dominant amongst the leading companies, making up 13 of the 24 featured innovations, with operations in 30 countries. Four leading Online Pharmacies are reaching nearly 10 million customers and generating median annual revenues of nearly $9M. The other categories featured are innovations in Product Protection and Visibility, Medical Drone Delivery and Data Analytics.
While leading innovators now appear positioned to deliver more substantive impact, they require targeted engagement from governments, donors, industry and global health institutions to transform access for unserved populations and improve the cost-effectiveness of care. To leverage leading innovators’ models in driving increases in access, governments, industry, donors and global health agencies should: simplify regulatory pathways; explore innovators’ ability to generate cost- savings for health systems, pursuing partnerships when the evidence is strong; and evolve contracting and payment systems to enable innovators to partner in healthcare delivery systems at larger scale.
Speaking on the launch of the report, Yomi Kazeem, Engagement Manager at Salient Advisory, stated that the findings underscore the remarkable resilience and growing impact of African supply chain innovators.
“Having tracked healthtech startups for many years, the emergence of a group of leading innovators is exciting to report. Local and global public health communities must increasingly recognize and leverage the innovators in developing reliable and resilient health supply chains,” he added.
Similarly, Ann Allen, Senior Program Officer at Gates Foundation, noted that technology-enabled innovations have the potential to help reverse long-running challenges in African health systems, while creating local jobs and strengthening local health markets.
“The report confirms innovators are increasingly positioned to deliver on this promise. However, there is more to be done as leveraging these innovations to truly transform cost-effective access for millions of unserved Africans will require concerted efforts from governments, industry and global health agencies alike,” Allen said.
