Backing African healthcare startups: Insights from Kenya-based investor

Neural Labs, a healthtech company operating in Kenya and Senegal, has developed NeuralSight, a technology that uses deep learning algorithms to detect potential abnormalities when it screens medical images for radiologists and hospitals in real time.

Vectorgram provides AI-powered tools for breast cancer screening in Kenya, using neural networks to speed up medical imaging.

Sophie Bot is an AI persona that can answer questions on sexual health, equipped with curated and verified information from the company’s partner UNFPA Kenya. The bot is available as an Android app or can interact with any users on Telegram, Messenger, WhatsApp and SMS.

AI needs data, and for that, you need diagnostic devices. Where do you see innovation in medical devices in Africa?

We have had some advances with locally made devices through the companies we support.

One of these companies is A-lite in Uganda. It manufactures a small device that uses infrared light to help health practitioners find veins in babies when they need to administer IV. It is very hard to find a vein on a neonate baby and nurses often end up having to prick the skin multiple times.

Another company in Ethiopia, Simbona, is building a phototherapy machine that treats the yellow pigmentation of jaundiced babies. It is the first of its kind made by a local entrepreneur and the company has already gone through the clinical trials and received the necessary regulatory approvals to use the device.

Mama Ope in Uganda has developed a pneumonia screening tool that improves the accuracy of pneumonia diagnosis and facilitates early treatment initiation. It looks at lung sounds and can use AI to quickly rule out false cases.

Another subsector you have mentioned is the healthcare supply chain – can you elaborate on some of the opportunities?

There are many. We have a company called Dawa Mkononi, in Tanzania, that streamlines the supply chain from manufacturers directly to pharmacies. The longer the chain, the higher the cost of medication at the counter in the pharmacies for a client. So Dawa Mkononi cuts out the middleman. It can do pool-purchasing at good discounts by aggregating orders from different pharmacies. The company is doing this very well in Tanzania and will soon expand to other countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo. The platform already has an impact; patients can buy medication at a more affordable price

Benacare approaches the supply chain challenge from another angle. The company does home-based care in rural Kenya, working with patients with chronic ailments, or people who have been hospitalised for a long time and want to continue with care at home. Not only is it supplying medication and pharmaceutical supplies to patients, but it also provides healthcare services to this group.

A third company that is worth mentioning is Damu Sasa which looks at supplying blood. In Kenya, there are frequent stockouts of blood supply and no visibility on where you could find the right blood type in an emergency. A healthcare practitioner might be calling around for blood, yet a facility next door could have a surplus. Damu Sasa is creating a blood services information management platform where you can visualise the entire blood supply ecosystem. The company also uses its platform to do blood donation drives.

What does your funding model look like?

Our model is that we provide funding and technical assistance. Our funding is blended; in some cases, we provide grants and in others equity. In healthcare, you have to be very patient as you will perhaps only see an exit opportunity after seven or eight years.

Is getting regulatory approval for these solutions a challenge?

All areas in healthcare are heavily regulated, as they should be, but even more so when it comes to devices. In addition to proving that it works, you have to do several clinical trials to prove safety and efficacy.

A lot of the local regulatory frameworks for devices were developed with imported devices in mind. When we apply for approval, we find that they ask for USA FDA approval as a criterion, or CE mark approvals. If you are trying to build a device or tool from the ground up in Africa, you have to work closely with the regulators to help mark that pathway, it is not always very straightforward.

What we hope for is that harmonisation of regulatory approval across Africa can at least be improved. If you get approval in Tanzania, for example, it would be beneficial if that could apply to the entire East African market. If you are targeting the continent, re-applying for approval 54 times is just too cumbersome.

SOURCE: www.howwemadeitinafrica.com