Key stakeholders in the healthcare industry have applauded the newly launched operating system for pharmacies by Advantage Health Africa (AHA) – The Advantage, describing it as the long-awaited solution to retail pharmacies’ operations in the Nigerian health ecosystem.
The healthcare leaders, including the President, Healthcare Federation of Nigeria, Dr Pamela Ajayi; President, Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), Professor Cyril Usifoh; Registrar, Pharmacy Council of Nigeria (PCN), Pharm. Babashehu Ahmed; National Chairman, Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria (ACPN); Pharm. Adewale Oladigbolu; and leading community pharmacists, unanimously agreed that drugs expiry in pharmacies and destruction of medicines due to expiration on the shelf will be a thing of the past, with the new digital platform.
The industry experts, who converged at the Impact Hub, Ikoyi, venue of the launch of The Advantage, on Monday, also affirmed that the system will to a great extent resolve the issue of medicines scarcity, as it will enhance better interactions among retail pharmacies owners, thereby enabling efficient coordination of needed medicines from one pharmacy, to another pharmacy where it is needed.
Speaking with Prof. Usifoh at the programme, he commended the management of AHA for such a revolutionary initiative, aimed at alleviating medicines scarcity through effective management of drugs in pharmacies across Nigeria. “It should actually alleviate issues around medicine scarcity, but most importantly, it will help coordinate the medicines retail pharmacies have in stock.
“This is how it works, if you have a pharmacy and people don’t need the drugs you have in stock, and the medicines are needed in my own pharmacy, they can help send the drugs to me. The idea is to eradicate the issue of drug expiry, as well as make availability of medicines easy”, he stated.
Dr Ajayi, who was the keynote speaker, emphasised the need for healthcare practitioners to leverage access to resources and technology to build an inclusive healthcare ecosystem. She identified the key elements of an inclusive healthcare platform which include comprehensive private public partnership and an innovative technological platform.
She highlighted the various means technology can be used to bridge the gap in the healthcare ecosystem, such as usage of wearable devices as diagnostic tools, generation of public health data, electronic payment methods, acceleration of drug discovery with AI, engagement with communities, among others.
In his contribution, the PCN Registrar, who was represented at the event by Pharm. Anthony Idoko, expressed the support of the regulatory agency for the newly launched platform, being a system that is developed to reduce medicine scarcity in the country.
The ACPN National Chairman, Pharm. Oladigbolu, also voted the association’s support for The Advantage, noting that it will go a long way in ameliorating most bottlenecks pharmacists usually encounter in retail practice, by giving them access to market and business intelligence, support for patient and business success, opening them to opportunities and resources, while enabling collaboration with health innovators for improved patient care.
He stated that such solution should be the ideal go-to for every retail pharmacy operator, as it has been built for easy acceleration for start-ups and big pharma.
In an exclusive interview with the CEO, Advantage Health Africa (AHA), Pharm. (Mrs) Abimbola Adebakin, she revealed the rationale behind the introduction of The Advantage, which is to improve patients care as well as revolutionise the pharmaceutical sector by accelerating retail pharmacies’ operations to international standard, comparable to what obtains in the financial sector. She further stated that it is to put a stop gap to the wastage of huge resources in the pharma industry, through informed business intelligence and management.
She decried how pharmacists have dwelt on guess work for a very long time, without informed data to guide their operations, but with the launch of The Advantage, that will no longer be for every company that sign-up with them. “We have been doing too much of guess work in pharmacy, enough of that. With AI laced to the system, it will help at a click to see how products are moving, which one should be imported, and which ones are in the industry already. So we will stop the mass destruction of expired productions”.
She continued :“The Advantage is a core solution engine. It is an operating system for pharmacies, not a point of sales or inventory software. We have built something that will cut across the 8 processes that pharmacies engage in, namely procurement, logistics, inventory control, finance, merchandising, people’s management, sales and after sales. No one has built such a robust bespoke solution for pharmacies before now.
“Why we built it is because pharmacies have been shielded from innovation for a long time, and those who want to innovate with pharmacists are having a hard time and handshake. So The Advantage is that handshake to pharmacists, because it will bring access to new markets, resources, skills for these pharmacies.
“The Advantage comes with ways to catalyze the operations of pharmacies, insight, and business intelligence. So each pharmacy can see for example, their sales for first quarter of 2023, sales for first quarter of 2022, sales for first quarter of 2021, and see a trend to understand what to do first quarter 2024”.
Adebakin, who disclosed that entry into the The Advantage costs nothing, but only require pharma companies to sign-up to the system, and join the waiting list, as they have got 55 companies on the list already, said the benefits of The Advantage is not limited to retail pharmacies, as it also enables big pharma to know how to place their products in pharmacies, and forecast their needs.
The launch of The Advantage also witnessed an insightful panel discussion, made up of four discussants, which were – Pharm. Taofik Odukoya, CEO, Vanguard Pharmacy; Pharm. Olubunmi Olugbeja, MD, Primeah Pharmacy Nig Ltd; Mrs Njide Ndili, country director, PharmAccess; and Mr Oluwaseun Afuye, senior consultant, Salient Advisory.
This is a hood coverage of the launch on Monday. Thank you for this.
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