Challenge
Up to two billion people around the world lack access to necessary medicines, vaccines, and medical devices, according to the World Health Organization, which has identified counterfeit medication as a major cause of death and one of the most urgent challenges in global health.
According to WHO, more than one in ten medicines in low- and middle-income countries are substandard or falsified. A survey conducted in Pakistan found that more than 40 percent of medicines sold in the country are substandard. In countries like Pakistan, where many pharmacies are unbanked and operate with limited working capital, a dependence on last-minute purchases from “grey market” suppliers is a major driver of the problem.
Solution and Impact
DFC is supporting an investment in MEDZnMORE through its $10 million equity investment in Integra Partners Fund II LP, which focuses on early-stage fintech and healthtech businesses in South and Southeast Asia.
MEDZnMORE was launched in 2020 to expand access to authentic medicines in Pakistan and other countries with less developed but rapidly growing pharmaceutical markets. The company sources drugs directly from manufacturers and delivers to both consumers and pharmacies through two separate B2B and B2C platforms.
MEDZnMORE maintains 8 warehouses and to date has completed more than one million deliveries and served more than 10,000 pharmacies and one million consumers in Pakistan.
The company is also working to help a large number of unbanked or under-financed pharmacies in the country by providing enterprise resource planning (ERP) to support sales forecasting and credit scoring to help them access formal financial services and meet their working capital needs.