Novartis today announced the launch of its new innovation hub, Novartis Biome sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), which will spearhead the further development of innovative business models and technology-driven solutions to improve healthcare in the region. The hub will focus on cross-sectoral partnerships to accelerate innovative approaches to increase affordable access to high-quality medicines and sustainably strengthen health systems.
Our goal is to provide every patient in SSA with affordable access to high-quality medicines and to ultimately transform healthcare in the region. For this, innovation and digital technologies have an immense potential to contribute, and with cross-sectoral partnerships, we can truly maximize the impact on the health of our people,” said Racey Muchilwa, President and Head, Novartis Sub-Saharan Africa.
Recognizing that access to medicines remains one of the world’s biggest healthcare challenges, and with Africa being home to the largest underserved population in the world, the Novartis Biome SSA will concentrate on four strategic priorities:
- extend affordability of healthcare
- strengthen early diagnosis to drive better outcomes
- lead in supply chain innovation
- support HCP education and patient awareness
Working across these four priorities supports Novartis aspiration to double its patient reach in Sub-Saharan Africa by 2022 and increase it five-fold by 2025.
“While healthcare innovation is at the core of our work at Novartis, we know that no single company can solve these challenges alone. Building strong partnerships and fostering greater collaboration is the only way to truly drive transformative, meaningful access improvements in our region,” continued Muchilwa.
Impacting affordability, access, and outcomes through partnerships
The Novartis Biome SSA will also continue to build on its partnership with Medtronic Labs to deliver end-to-end care for hypertension and diabetes patients by seeking to scale their model across the continent and working with both major international organizations as well as local implementation champions. The digital solution powered by Medtronic provides doctors with the ability to proactively manage large patient cohorts and act on red alerts, as well as giving patients the chance to join virtual patient support groups.
In addition, Novartis has partnered with the Commonwealth Pharmacists Association (CPA) to support training of more than one million pharmacists in all 54 Commonwealth countries, of which more than 20 are from SSA and supported by the Novartis Biome SSA.
