The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and rising inflation has led to a sharp increase in the price of medicines in Nigeria. These prices have subjected the neighbourhood pharmacies and Proprietary Patent Medicine Vendors (PPMVs) that are the main source of medicines for most Nigerians as they need to provide lifesaving medicines to their communities as well as run their businesses effectively.
With Remedial Health‘s digital procurement platform, pharmacies and PPMVs can source all the medicines, consumables, and small medical devices for their practice via a mobile app or web store. Besides selling these products at open-air medicine market prices, the platform delivers them within 24 hours.
Raises $4.4M investment
In a recent development, Remedial Health has raised $4.4 million in seed funding. The financing round was led by Global Ventures, which invested in the $1 pre-seed round. In addition, Tencent, Y Combinator, Cathexis Ventures, LightSpeed Venture Partners Scout Fund (that recently backed Wondermind, and Alloy), Ventures Platform, Alumni Ventures, and True Capital Management also participated in the round. Prominent angel investors, including Guillaume Luccisano and Christopher Golda were also involved in this seed round.
The investment will be used to accelerate its expansion across Nigeria and to provide access to credit for inventory purchases for its growing customer base of neighbourhood pharmacies, Proprietary Patent Medicine Vendors (PPMVs), and hospitals in the country. Besides Nigeria, the startup will also lay the groundwork for expansion across Africa in 2023.
According to Samuel Okwuada, CEO and co-founder of Remedial Health, “Neighbourhood pharmacies and PPMVs have the potential to be the face of a thriving healthcare system in Africa, and we believe that technology can play a significant role in making this vision a reality. The funds that we have raised and the strategic support from our investors will enable us to deliver the solutions to address various challenges that have hampered these businesses’ growth for many years, and make it easier to safeguard lives and livelihoods across the continent for years to come”
Sacha Haider, Principal at Global Ventures, said, “The market opportunity to serve community pharmacies across Africa is significant; in Nigeria alone, 500,000 community pharmacies drive over 80% of a 70 billion dollar market in annual pharmaceutical sales. The team at Remedial Health is proactively addressing challenges including price opacity, poor drug quality control, and a very fragmented supply chain, head-on to create a tech-enabled, pharmacy-centered healthcare network that has allowed over 25% in cost reductions at the point of care. We are excited to partner with Sam on his mission to improve access to quality and affordable healthcare in Africa through optimised pharmaceutical supply chains”.
Digitises African pharmaceutical industry
Remedial Health was founded by Samuel Okwuada and Victor Benjamin in 2021 in Nigeria. The healthtech delivers technology solutions that enable greater efficiency and profitability in Africa’s pharmaceutical sector. It also supports the development of a tech-enabled, pharmacy-centered healthcare network across the continent.
By leveraging Remedial Health’s platform, neighbourhood pharmacies, PPMVs and hospitals can benefit from group/bulk buying discounts, time-saving and improved efficiency, access to credit to improve their earnings, and additional revenue from providing financial services and other primary healthcare services. It lets manufacturers benefit from an efficient supply chain, a clear and instant route-to-market for their products, and real-time intelligence on product utilisation to improve decision-making on forecasting, production, and distribution.
Already, it operates in 6 states across Nigeria and is connected to over 100 pharmaceutical manufacturers and suppliers, including GSK, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Nigeria’s Orange Drugs, Emzor, and Fidson Healthcare. Remedial Health has also witnessed a 600% increase in sales volumes and the company now covers 16 of Nigeria’s 36 states.
