Nigerian Startup, Remedial Health is Transforming Africa’s Pharmaceutical Sector

In order to increase the productivity of Africa’s pharmaceutical industry, Nigerian startup Remedial Health has created a number of solutions. As a result, it was accepted into the Silicon Valley-based Y Combinator incubator.

Remedial Health, founded in 2020 by Samuel Okwuada and Victor Benjamin, offers a variety of technological solutions that make it simpler for healthcare professionals to obtain genuine, reasonably priced retail drugs, consumables, and medical equipment from producers and distributors.

Okwuada told Disrupt Africa, “We provide a range of solutions, including our patient medication records and digital procurement platforms that make it simpler for neighborhood pharmacies and Proprietary Patent Medicine Vendors (PPMVs) to get affordable and genuine retail pharmaceuticals.

“We are delivering digital solutions that enable improved efficiency and profitability in Africa’s pharmaceutical sector and enabling the building of a tech-enabled, pharmacy-centered healthcare network across the continent, starting with Nigeria,” the statement continued.

The Nigerian companies Orange Drugs, Emzor, and Fidson Healthcare, as well as more than 100 pharmaceutical suppliers and manufacturers, including GSK, Pfizer, and Astrazeneca, are all connected to Remedial. Remedial already operates in nine states across Nigeria. It was one of the African firms that participated in the Y Combinator program earlier this year, and it also received US$1 million in pre-seed capital to support its growth.

Beginning as a private label firm, the enterprise supplied goods that had been contract made in countries like India to pharmacies in Nigeria.

Customers placed orders for products that weren’t part of the private label offering because of changes in market demand and supply chain disruptions brought on by the COVID-19 outbreak, according to Okwuada.

We made the decision to combine my expertise as a certified pharmacist with my co-experience founder’s as a field sales agent to produce a variety of digital solutions to improve the productivity and profitability of the pharmaceutical ecosystem.

Following the pivot, Remedial began to concentrate on PPMVs, companies without a qualified pharmacist that profitably offer pharmaceutical items on a retail basis.

“They account for more than 80% of all drugs sold in Africa’s US$45 billion pharmaceutical business, serving as the primary supply of medications for numerous prevalent disorders. Although manufacturers have little visibility into their performance due to a fragmented market and an opaque supply chain, this results in ineffective forecasting, manufacturing, and distribution decisions, according to Okwuada.

“Using our digital procurement platform, pharmacies and PPMVs may source all of their practice’s medications, consumables, and minor medical devices via a mobile app or mobile-responsive online shop at open air medicine market pricing, with deliveries taking place within 24 hours.”

The validity of every product is checked before it is distributed, and “Buy-Now-Pay-Later” options are also provided to allow store owners to stock up and take advantage of all of the sales chances at their disposal.

Additionally, Okwuada noted, “We offer a cost-effective and user-friendly patient medication records platform that enables pharmacies and PPMVs to digitally manage daily operations and effortlessly run their practices.”

“To promote more effective and efficient patient care, the PMR platform contains patient medication information, patient communications, stock management, order processing, reporting, and accounting. Additionally, the platform enables Remedial Health to offer manufacturers unified, real-time data on market behavior for greater profitability and improved decision-making along the value chain.

Global Ventures, Ventures Platform, Ingressive Capital, and said famous angels like Flutterwave’s Olugbenga “GB” Agboola, Victor Asemota, and Jobberman co-founder Opeyemi Awoyemi’s Angel Syndicate Fund are among the investors in Remedial Health’s pre-seed round. The firm is aiming for future growth and already has a network of more than 300 pharmacies as well as more than 100 pharmaceutical manufacturers and suppliers.

However, for the time being, Okwuada added, “our focus is on growing our footprint in Nigeria and delivering more value for our partner pharmacies and manufacturers.” “We are evaluating alternative ways to penetrate the market a little further,” Okwuada said.

In order to position more pharmacies and PPMV as the forefront of healthcare in Africa, we intend to grow throughout more states and eventually the entire continent.

Remedial is tackling logistics issues, an area that may be challenging, especially when introducing a relatively new business. It makes money by providing inventory to pharmacies and hospitals via its managed marketplace and collecting a percentage of transactions.

We had to create our own internal distribution network, which consists of a central hub and a network of regional hubs that cover the areas where we operate. When we want additional assistance to reach capacity, we also deal with dependable third-party logistics partners, according to Okwuada.

The problem of fake medications is another issue. We collaborate directly with manufacturers and authorized distributors to overcome this obstacle. Additionally, we are looking into ways to expand our stock of contract-produced and white-label medications.