DrugStoc, Nigeria-based healthtech is looking to solve the nation’s poor drug supply chain problem.
Founded in 2015 by Chibuzor Opara and Adham Yehia, DrugStoc is a “cloud-based health pharmaceutical distribution platform.
Both Opara and Yehia have a medical background, with the former bagging a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) from the Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, Nigeria. He also has a Ph.D. in Medicine & Surgery and an MPH in Economics, Policy, and Management from the University of Maastricht, The Netherlands.
Yehia, on the other hand, graduated from McMaster University, Canada, with a bachelor’s degree in Genetics. Coincidentally, both chose to do their masters in the same school, albeit at different times and met as Yehia was looking for an advisor for his Masters in Health Innovation Management.
Opara had spent the years after receiving his MBBS specialising in surgery but soon found what he called “huge gaps affecting the ancillary operations” of healthcare provision. Doing a 180, he decided to further his training in economics, working with international organisations like the World Health Organization, the European Union, the International Finance Corporation, and the World Bank.
Upon moving back to Nigeria, the two co-founded Integra Health in 2010, a health consultancy and IT Lab based out of Lagos, focused on integrating efficient management practices and processes into healthcare through technology.
“We basically connect manufacturers of good quality pharmaceutical products to hospitals and pharmacies. We are solving a fundamental problem in the market which is fragmentation in the pharmaceutical supply chain,” Opara told Techpoint Africa.
According to him, this fragmentation has resulted in three key issues: access, substandard and counterfeit medication, and non-transparent pricing and financing of the supply chain.
The company also participated in the Co-creation Hub (CcHUB) Growth Capital Fund, receiving some funding. In 2019, DrugStoc received a $65,000 grant from the Jack Ma Foundation’s inaugural $1 million Africa Netpreneur Prize Initiative. They went on to get another grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Also, as Yehia told TechCrunch in an interview for DrugStoc’s recent $4.4 million Series A raise, apart from the tech, setting up important infrastructure like the company’s fulfillment centers in 2017 — warehouses for distribution of drugs — and customer support units have been essential.
The company’s services can be accessed via its website or app on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store.