Remedial Health secures $1 million to drive efficiency in Africa's Pharmaceutical sector

Nigeria's Remedial Health has raised $1 million in pre-seed funding to digitize and drive efficiency in Africa's pharmaceutical sector.

To commence in Nigeria, the healthtech startup is delivering technology solutions that enable greater efficiency and profitability in Africa’s pharmaceutical sector and supporting the development of a tech-enabled, pharmacy-centered healthcare network across the continent.

Remedial Health was founded in 2020 by Samuel Okwuada, a trained pharmacist and self-taught software developer and Victor Benjamin, an experienced pharmaceutical field sales agent.

With this new investment, Remedial will roll out its digital procurement and PMR (patient medication records) platforms, and make it easier for neighbourhood pharmacies and Proprietary Patent Medicine Vendors (PPMVs) to access affordable and authentic retail medicines.

PPMVs are businesses without a trained pharmacist that sell pharmaceutical products on a retail basis for profit. Providing the main source of medicines for many common illnesses, PPMVs account for more than 80 percent of all the drugs sold in Africa’s $45 billion pharmaceutical industry (projected to reach $70 billion by 2030).

However, a fragmented market and an opaque supply chain means manufacturers have limited visibility into their performance, leading to inefficient decision making on forecasting, production and distribution.

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 mobile responsive web store at open air medicine market prices and have them delivered within 24 hours.

According to the YC-backed startup, all products are vetted before distribution to verify their authenticity and Buy-Now-Pay-Later options are also available to enable store owners stock up and maximize the sales opportunities available to them. They only pay after stock has been dispensed to customers.

Samuel Okwuada, CEO and co-founder of Remedial Health said "pharmacies and PPMVs have been the frontline of healthcare in Nigeria for many years and we are excited to have raised these funds to connect them more effectively to manufacturers and ensure that their data is reflected more accurately in decision making across the pharmaceutical value chain."

Adding that, "the ongoing global pandemic has brought the importance of healthcare to the fore and we strongly believe that these businesses can play a key role in safeguarding lives and livelihoods across the continent for years to come."

The startup also provides an affordable and easy-to-use patient medication records (PMR) platform that enables pharmacies and PPMVs to digitally manage day-to-day operations and seamlessly run their practises. The PMR platform stores patient medication records, patient communications, stock management, order processing, reporting and accounting to support more effective and efficient patient care.

"We are delighted to be partnering with Remedial Health to address some of the challenges impacting access to healthcare on the continent. There is huge scope for growth for Remedial Health not only in Nigeria’s pharmaceutical industry but also across the African continent", Sacha Haider, Principal at Global Ventures stated.

Currently, Remedial Health has access to over 100 pharmaceutical manufacturers and suppliers and a 24-hour delivery timeframe including GSK, Pfizer and Astrazeneca, as well as Nigeria’s Orange Drugs, Emzor and Fidson Healthcare.

The Nigeria-based startup is operating across six states in the country. However, this funding will enable its expansion to the other 30 states.

The startup is also part of the Winter 2022 cohort of Silicon Valley’s Y Combinator accelerator. Participation in the accelerator will provide access to support and a network of partners and advisors to drive growth for the startup.

It already has operations in 6 states across Nigeria and is connected to more than 100 pharmaceutical manufacturers and suppliers,  This funding will enable its expansion across the other 30 states.

The funding round was led by Global Ventures and Ventures Platform, with participation from Ingressive Capital, Voltron Capital, and angel investment from Flutterwave’s Olugbenga “GB” Agboola, Victor Asemota, Opeyemi Awoyemi’s (Jobberman co-founder) Angel Syndicate Fund and other investors.