With all eyes set on the price, Sanoi is good to go digitizing health services in Africa! It believes that medication is one of the most basic human needs that cannot be sidelined worse still, now when technology is disrupting that space.
Sanofi plays a major in innovation for Africa, and is set to launch three challenges for the African health space to find innovative solutions that would help improve access to healthcare and transform the health ecosystem throughout the continent.
The challenges will be pitched on the 16th-18th May 2019 at VivaTech, an annual technology and innovation conference dedicated to startups held in Paris. They illustrate Sanofi’s commitment to contribute locally by supporting the most daring and innovative entrepreneurs in the realization of their projects and aim to identify, select and support the best start-ups in their desire to invent tomorrow’s solutions in the health sector across African.
The challenges are part of Sanofi’s strategy to support and encourage innovation in the African continent, in order to create a health ecosystem at the patient’s service that includes all stakeholders in the sector; public authorities, private companies, start-ups, etc.
In 2018, Sanofi received 190 start-up applications, 10 of which were selected to join the Sanofi stand in the Afric@Tech dedicated space at VivaTech.
The first one is to provide solutions to enhance awareness, diagnosis and disease management of patients suffering from diabetes. Today, over two-thirds of adults living with diabetes in Africa are unaware of their condition. Once diagnosed, a majority of patients remains untreated or uncontrolled, mainly because of access and affordability, lack of medical capabilities and patient education.
The second challenge focuses on how to improve access to medicines in remote areas from supply chain management to alternative payment solutions. This aims to make possible the development innovative and personalized solutions, for better patient care, even in the most isolated areas. Sanofi is looking for tools developing systems reaching the “Last Mile” through e-commerce, direct to pharmacy, direct to patient and tailored payment solutions and can provide better health support for people.
Finally, the last challenge looks for solutions to support decision-makers in getting a better usage of available health data to recognize and predict diseases, for research purposes and to improve health care management. This challenge aims to identify solutions to assist in the decision-making process and the evaluation of public-private partnerships.
The selected start-ups will be invited to present their innovative solutions at Afric@Tech, a Lab dedicated to the African continent within Viva Technology. They will defend their projects in front of a jury consisting of Sanofi representatives and industry professionals, and will be able to demonstrate their solutions to the public.
A jury of professionals will then select the final start-ups in February for evaluation according to 5 criterion: concrete evidence of positive results in at least one African country, project maturity, relevance of the solution, market potential and business model, skills, expertise and experience of the team and finally scientific evidence if applicable.
This story was first posted here: https://www.cio.co.ke/sanofi-sets-to-digitize-health-services-in-africa/
