Innovation Village had an interview with Mrs Abimbola Jimi-Adebakin, the Founder and CEO of My-Medicines.com, a fully aggregated online medicines’ ordering platform in Nigeria.
Innovation Village (IV): Tell us about my-medicines.com
Abimbola Jimi-Adebakin (AJA): It is a fully dedicated online medicines’ ordering platform where you can sign on and make purchases of a wide range of medicines (over the counter and most prescription medicines), special foods (such as those for special needs) and health related devices. Through my-medicines.com, our team at Advantage Health Africa is committed to bringing genuine medicines from across a large network of independent retail pharmacies across Nigeria to the consumers of these medicines in a convenient and safe way.
(Advantage Health Africa provides collaboration and aggregation platforms for growth in the health sector. The team delivers refined solutions that combine needs analysis and holistic solutions that are inclusive and sustainable. It is currently operating with various service providers in the healthcare sector to enhance their business offerings. In the team are pharmacists, medical, finance, IT, legal, and human resource management subject matter experts. We approach issues from a holistic view, seeking sustainable innovations that are scalable and reproducible. The goal is to grow vertically across Africa and horizontally across other sectors in the healthcare space.)
IV: Why did you set up this business? Which gap do you hope to address?
AJA: We are bridging a supply chain gap that we discovered from our years of practicing in the retail pharmacy space. In many instances, people visit their community pharmacies and are unable to fill prescriptions or only fill them in part. No one retail pharmacy can carry full inventory of medicines. This can be frustrating. So, we have leveraged the enabling environment we now have where the public is gaining confidence in online purchases.
The model for my-medicines.com is different from what I have seen being called online pharmacies.
We rely on fully registered retail pharmacies as the source. Each one guaranties genuineness of medicines supplied, since we are dealing with lives here. Thus, we are very careful to identify and select only duly registered premises to drive my-medicines. With my-medicines.com, we have provided a digital bridge to reduce the frustrations encountered by the public, when seeking to fill their medicines requirements – both for themselves and their wards or dependents
IV: Who is your target market?
AJA: Anyone seeking convenience, reliability and safety of medicines. You may be a prescriber and want to place your patient on medication that does not appear readily available, you can easily check or direct that patient to my-medicines.com and it will be delivered by any of our network members nearby. If you need medicines for yourself, and you can’t get away to seek from one or two pharmacies, simply log on, search and select the medicine and pay online. Convenient and secure. Some Nigerians who live abroad routinely or occasionally need medicines and medical devices for their parents or family here in Nigeria, they can now achieve that conveniently on my-medicines.com
We seek to make procurement of these sensitive products safe and through a reliable channel.
IV: How do you hope to ensure that you have access to genuine affordable medicines?
AJA: Nothing is as worrisome as getting a medicine from a non-professional who cannot be held accountable for the medicine you have purchased. Any retail pharmacy on our platform is registered, is supervised by a registered professional and can assure you confidently that your medicines are sourced from authentic sources. Our quality assurance and control processes form a strong bedrock of our internal organisation. We also have a dedicated customer support system to address concerns and enquiries, if any.
The network member pharmacies across Nigeria have gone the extra mile to set up their practice in a manner that meets regulatory requirements. We have simply provided them an alternative channel to get across to consumers at home or in offices who are unable to physically visit the pharmacy, or find it time-saving to place orders on their phones or computers.
IV: Do you have any assistance from the government?
AJA: We have had encouragement to remain innovative from the leadership of the Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN). It is the government agency under the supervision of the Federal Ministry of Health established for the purpose of the regulation and control of practice of Pharmacy, determining professional standards in Pharmacy and securing the establishment and maintenance of registers of Pharmacists. The Registrar, having checked that we meet regulatory concerns with electronic channels, enthused that this type of innovation is essential to move our practice forward.
There are a myriad of challenges with our healthcare services in Nigeria. The system needs a lot of help. However, we cannot continue to point fingers that the practice of pharmacy and the business of pharmacy need support. I am leading a team of professionals that is committed to being solutions providers. We see opportunities when others see problems. I say this everywhere I get a chance to speak with people, and now, by setting up my-medicines.com, I am demonstrating commitment once more.
Advantage Health Africa has committed to offering solutions to the issues affecting the health industry. We will of course appreciate more support where possible from government and non-government sources and even investors who can see the potential in the Nigerian $1.8billion pharmaceutical market that is growing at double digits. In addition to my-medicines.com, we are working on transformation of the industry by driving a concerted collaboration initiative with the Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria (ACPN) to ensure industry growth and stability of the pharmaceutical industry.
IV: Your website says you are in beta-testing mode for the next few weeks. When do you hope to start?
AJA: We have started. I have learnt that entrepreneurs can easily suffer from paralysis, that stems from our drive for perfection. Yes, we could build a perfect platform, but it still needs to be subjected to the rigours of real life users. So, during these early weeks, we will continue to tweak and make amends. However, orders are already coming in and we are live.
IV: What are the other unique features of My-medicines.com?
AJA: In addition to medicines, don’t forget the professional support that pharmacists are able to add to use of the medicines. This is lacking when you make purchases from non-professionals. We have set up a mobile application, CareHub, which you can download on your phone, and access a large number of pharmacists who give counsel and guidance on medicines use. We have combined Carehub with my-medicines.com so anyone who visits and makes purchases gets the right medicines and advise.
One of the exercises we engage in at Advantage Health Africa is to wear the shoes of the various parties we seek to serve. With my-medicines.com, we have employed an escrow payment system. For those who buy on the platform, this simply means your account will only be debited after the delivery is confirmed. This way, we eliminate the fear of users regarding orders not delivered but account being credited. There is therefore trust in the platform and they can confidently tell others about their experience.
As Nigerians, we need to believe in ourselves. We have greatness in us and there are various solutions coming up today to solve our own contextual issues. This is one of them.
I need to state though that we have started small. Our inventory contains just over five hundred items (500) and the retailers are signing on gradually. Our aim is to give access to more than 10,000 items from across 2,500 registered retail pharmacies across Nigeria. IF your desired item is not available yet, or your state is not yet covered, bear with us. We are ramping up the numbers day and night.
The team at Advantage Health Africa is fully committed to make this work. No longer will solutions that should serve the under-served fail in Nigeria. We count on the patriotism of our fellow countrymen, hence our launch on October 1st, marking Nigeria’s 57th year independence. We can rally round to make home-grown solutions work!
