Haltons Pharmacy, a local chain pharmacy founded by mPharma, a Ghanaian health tech startup, and Belayab Pharmaceuticals, has established a second location in Gerji, Addis Abeba. Halton has also added Eshi Express as a delivery partner for its consumers, who will place orders over the phone.
After mPharma negotiated a franchise deal with Belayab Pharmaceuticals through its subsidiary, Haltons Limited, the first Haltons Pharmacy in the capital opened roughly a year ago in Sarbet.
Belayab Pharmaceuticals is a subsidiary of the Belayab Group, an Ethiopian conglomerate that also operates as an official franchisee for firms such as Pizza Hut and Kia Motors.
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mPharma, which was founded in 2013, specialises in vendor-managed inventory, retail pharmacy operations, and market information for hospitals, pharmacies, and patients.
mPharma not only manages prescription medicine inventories for pharmacies and their suppliers, but it also operates retail pharmacies and provides market analytics to hospitals, pharmacies, and patients. They can provide lower prices to the public by aggregating and anticipating demand throughout their network of suppliers.
mPharma is one of Africa’s most well-funded healthtech businesses, having received more than $80 million. It is present in Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Zambia, Malawi, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Uganda, and Gabon, and recently purchased a controlling ownership in Healthplus, Nigeria’s top pharmacy chain.
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Due to legal constraints, mPharma’s current operations in Ethiopia are limited to Hamilton’s pharmacy, and it does not provide its software solutions to third parties.
mPharma, on the other hand, intends to grow its services in Ethiopia by leveraging its pharmacies as a point of entry. It aims to solve problems in the pharmaceutical supply chain, such as lack of access to drugs and counterfeit drugs, as well as patient misdiagnosis, by expanding its pharmacy network and services.
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In the long run, mPharma envisions its Ethiopian pharmacies becoming points of care where patients can come to get a basic diagnosis.
Belayab Ethiopia Belayab Ethiopia
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer, who has several years of experience working in Africa’s burgeoning tech startup industry. He has closed multi-million dollar deals bordering on venture capital, private equity, intellectual property (trademark, patent or design, etc.), mergers and acquisitions, in countries such as in the Delaware, New York, UK, Singapore, British Virgin Islands, South Africa, Nigeria etc. He’s also a corporate governance and cross-border data privacy and tax expert.
As an award-winning writer and researcher, he is passionate about telling the African startup story, and is one of the continent’s pioneers in this regard. You can book a session and speak with him using the link: https://insightsbyexperts.com/view_expert/charles-rapulu-udoh