mPharma has been announced by the Skoll Foundation as the recipient of the 2019 Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship. The award will be presented on April 10th at the Skoll World Forum at the University of Oxford.
In addition to this, mPharma has entered into an agreement to acquire Haltons Pharmacy, Kenya’s 2nd biggest Pharmacy Chain. This deal is subject to regulatory approval.
The Skoll Foundation presents the Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship each year to a select group of social entrepreneurs. The awarded entrepreneurs have innovations that have impact on some of the world’s most pressing problems and have an ability to scale.
Each awardee receives a $1.5 million investment or core support grant from Skoll to scale their work and increase their impact. They also gain leverage through their long-term participation in a global community of visionary leaders and innovators dedicated to solving the world’s most pressing problems.
mPharma pioneered the vendor managed inventory model for pharmacies in Zambia. Instead of pharmacies managing their own inventory, mPharma sources, procures and finances it for them at no cost to the pharmacy. The pharmacy only pays mPharma for what they dispense to patients. Through this service, mPharma is reducing inventory stock outs and the need for pharmacies to have access to capital to purchase their inventory. Today, more than 250 pharmacies across Ghana, Nigeria, and Zambia are in our network. mPharma has served over 400,000 patients since 2017.
Gregory Rockson, the CEO of mPharma in accepting the award said – “We are honored to see the work we started receive this acknowledgment from the Skoll Foundation. It encourages us to work harder in ensuring that no patient is denied access to high quality medicines due to cost or stock outs.”
On acquiring Haltons Pharmacy, Gregory said – “What excited me about Haltons was its vision to bring high quality and safe medicines to the mass market. The pharmacy plays an important role in increasing access to affordable healthcare in Africa. We look forward to using our experience in vendor managed inventory and conversion franchising to build Haltons into a mass market retail pharmacy brand in Kenya.”