Axmed Raises $2 Million from Founderful to Optimize Drug Supply Chains in Underserved Markets

Image credits: Axmed

It is estimated that around 2 billion people, especially those in low- and middle-income countries, lack access to quality, affordable essential medicines. The situation is exacerbated by low-quality or even lethal counterfeit medicines filling the gap. This deficit means that diseases that would otherwise be treatable or preventable end up causing distress and even death.

This is the problem that B2B marketplace Axmed aims to solve by addressing supply chain fragmentation, and the startup recently raised $2 million in seed funding from Founderful Ventures to fuel its plans.

Focused on low- and middle-income countries, Axmed is building a marketplace that aims to link manufacturers with healthcare institutions to correct inefficiencies that lead to shortages, high costs and the proliferation of counterfeit medicines. The startup wants to achieve this by adding demand, allowing buyers to obtain drugs directly from manufacturers at lower costs and moving away from traditional pharmaceutical supply chains that have multiple tiers of traders and distributors. To trade on the market, both sellers and buyers would have to meet multiple regulatory and legal criteria.

The startup’s initial target markets include Kenya, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Rwanda, where it aims to make inroads through religious institutions, non-governmental organizations, government care providers and procurement agencies.

Switzerland-based Axmed is currently working with partners to have the initial version of its product fully vetted, ahead of its full launch later this year. The new funding follows a $5 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to make maternal and child health care available in high-priority countries.

Emmanuel Akpakwu (CEO), who co-founded the startup with Felix Ohnmacht and Sofia Radley-Searle, told TechCrunch that their goal is to leverage the aggregation model to strengthen buyer power and create an attractive market opportunity for manufacturers. He added that these models have been used in the past during emergencies, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, but those procurement initiatives never evolve beyond their initial mandate or diminish once emergencies subside.

“We wanted to build something that would remain and really become a long-term sustainable operation that focused on empowering buyers and patients, making them more attractive to high-quality manufacturers, and for them (manufacturers) to access these markets.” in a much more attractive way. more effective and fluid way,” he said.

Additionally, the platform is designed to provide visibility into the real size or potential of these markets. Akpakwu says most local, regional or global manufacturers need to understand market sizes and how they can participate in those regions effectively.

Akpakwu previously served as commercial director of Novartis’ sub-Saharan Africa region. It was during this period that he faced the challenges and obstacles that prevent or discourage manufacturers from scaling into new markets. Axmed was later conceived to aggregate orders and create an attractive market for manufacturers.

Axmed joins the growing list of platforms such as Africa Medicines Supply Platform and Xs2Meds, as well as health technology companies such as Drugstoc and Remedial Health that are digitizing the pharmaceutical supply chain and solving sourcing and distribution challenges for pharmacies and institutions such as hospitals .