Meet the new Swiss company that brings medicines to low-income countries

The supply of affordable medicines to low- and middle-income countries is pitiful, leaving billions of people vulnerable to diseases that could be treated and often cured if they lived in a wealthier nation. Swiss startup Axmed is determined to help; Having already secured initial backing from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, today it announces an additional $2 million funding round.

“I have seen many of the problems firsthand,” says Emmanuel Akpakwu, CEO of Axmed, who grew up in Nigeria and still has family there. “People simply can’t get the medications they need simply because they live in the wrong place.”

The statistics tell a powerful story. Low- and middle-income countries represent more than 80% of the world’s population and more than 90% of its disease burden; However, global pharmaceutical companies derive only 6% of their revenue from these nations. For various structural and commercial reasons, they do the vast majority of their business with developed economies.

Axmed hopes to start changing this narrative. Its platform allows governments and other organizations in developing countries to order the medicines they need. All orders for each drug are then aggregated into one large order that meets demand at the volumes pharmaceutical companies are looking for. This allows manufacturers to supply drugs at prices that less wealthy countries can afford to pay.

“The principle is that it shouldn’t matter whether you are a small or big country: you should pay the same price for essential medicines,” Akpakwu says. “We believe our approach is a win-win: it reduces barriers to access to expensive medications for patients and providers, while allowing manufacturers to expand their presence in underserved markets.”

The founders of Axmed certainly have the experience needed to make the platform work. Akpakwu himself is the former commercial director of pharmaceutical giant Novartis’ operations in sub-Saharan Africa. Co-founders Felix Ohnmacht and Sofia Radley-Searle also held senior positions in the sector, at Novartis and GSK, respectively.

The inventiveness of Axmed’s solution and the track record of its founders were key to gaining support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, whose $5 million investment helped the business take off. The American foundation is particularly interested in Axmed improving access to healthcare for pregnant women and newborn children, but Akpakwu emphasizes that the platform will allow developing countries to purchase hundreds of different medicines for a wide range of diseases and conditions.

The platform is scheduled to be launched commercially on a large scale later this year, but Axmed has already developed a prototype version of the technology in conjunction with pharmaceutical partners and governments. The platform’s initial focus will be serving clients in Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ethiopia and Nigeria, although Axmed is already in talks with countries elsewhere.

The additional investment is intended to support increased hiring and underpin the development of its technology infrastructure in key markets in Africa and the Caribbean. Today’s $2 million round is led by Founderful Ventures, where Lukas Weder, managing partner, says the investor was attracted by both Axmed’s social mission and the size of the business opportunity.

“The team’s commitment and enthusiasm to address this important challenge is inspiring,” says Weder. “We have every confidence in its ability to reshape the $140 billion pharmaceutical market in low- and middle-income countries, improving access to medicines for more than 6 billion people.” individuals.”

“Axmed’s approach could fundamentally change the way patients obtain treatments,” adds Roselyne Opel, director of the Pooled Procurement Initiative at the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States. “We look forward to seeing their platform reshape access, empower purchasers, and strengthen the delivery of life-saving therapies to a broader patient base.”

James Nyamongo, CEO of Nairobi Hospital in Kenya, also supports this. “Axmed’s approach not only allows us to gain access to life-saving medicines affordably, but also fosters real competition that raises the bar of quality, bringing the highest quality local and global manufacturers to our doorstep” .