Medical firm mPharma has announced it will be acquiring Haltons Pharmacy, Kenya’s second largest pharmacy chain. The deal, which is awaiting regulatory approval, is preceded by the organization’s (mPharma) Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship that will be presented on 10 April at the Skoll World Forum at the University of Oxford.
The Skoll Foundation has been staging the annual Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship to some social entrepreneurs that have devised notable innovations that address some of the world’s most pressing issues. Skoll has also been investing directly to these solutions for an increased impact at scale. The investment has further allowed startups to receive accelerated scaled adoption for an increased reach of social entrepreneurs.
According to Skoll, each awardee receives a $1.5 million investment or core support from the foundation to scale their business and heighten their impact. At the same time, winners gain leverage through their extended participation in the global community of visionary leaders, as well as innovators that are dedicated to addressing social problems.
It should be noted that mPharma gained popularity by pioneering vendor managed inventory model for medical firms in Zambia. Rather than pharmacies managing their own inventory, mPharma sources, procures and offers financial support at no cost to the pharmacy. In principle, the pharmacy pays mPharma what they dispense to the patients. mPharma says it has since served more than 0.4 million patients since 2017.
“We are honored to see the work we started receiving this acknowledgement 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,” noted Gregory Rockson, the CEO of mPharma.
“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,” added Gregory.
