Drug-IT Solutions Repairs Crumbling Nigerian Pharma Supply Chain

Valued at $2 billion annually and with an average annual growth rate of 10%, the pharmaceutical market in Nigeria is one of the largest in Africa.
When matched against Goliath-like obstacles, such as the increasingly high burden of infectious and non-infectious diseases, including malaria, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, cancer, and hypertension, among others, it has held its ground, not shrinking back.

However, in recent times, the cracks in the solid pillars of this robust market make winning this battle seem more and more improbable. The pharmaceutical market is also waging internal wars with chaotic drug distribution, medicine counterfeiting, high medicine prices, and poor access to quality medicines.
In the face of ever-changing and increasingly severe external threats, our fragmented sector can only hope to prevail by adapting to these challenges—using innovation and technology to address its own people and competency issues, as well as the infrastructural and regulatory inadequacies plaguing it today.
That is where Drug-IT Solutions comes in.

Since its founding in April 2019, the tech-driven, proudly-Nigerian pharmaceutical distribution company has had one overarching mission: to transform the way drugs are distributed in Nigeria. And it is doing this by utilising innovation to mend the cracks in the Nigerian pharmaceutical supply chain.
Drug-IT has developed the “Matrix-36 Ecosystem” to facilitate a more streamlined, open, and cost-effective pharmaceutical supply chain from factory to patient. This ecosystem includes Matrix-36 Marketplace and Matrix-36 Pharmacy.

Matrix-36 Marketplace is a convenient and safe platform for pharmacy businesses, hospitals, and medical professionals to buy pharmaceuticals and medical devices efficiently.

The strictly B2B platform is fully optimised to cater for rare and specialist medicines which are usually difficult to source by pharmaceutical vendors and retailers. This reduces the losses, financial and medical, that arise from the inability to source for these medicines.

Similar to the way that Marketplace functions, Matrix-36 Pharmacy is an online pharmacy. However, it is designed with the consumer in mind. Because of its extensive stock of rare and specialist pharmaceuticals, it is a dependable pharmaceutical partner for chronically ill patients taking medications that are difficult to obtain. Because of limited inventory turnover and high drug prices, these medications are not typically stocked by traditional pharmacies.
The pharma distribution platforms which make up the Matrix-36 Ecosystem serve as key tools in the execution of goals towards creating an enabling supply chain environment within the African pharmaceutical market.

As Drug-IT Solutions firmly establishes its roots in the industry, it has achieved significant milestones and achievements.

Its success in generating over a million dollars in revenue proves that it is meeting an urgent need in the pharmaceutical market across Africa.
Recently, Drug-IT has partnered with InvestiPharm, a financing firm specializing in the pharmaceutical industry’s supply chain, to provide after-sale credit payments for select financed inventory products to business customers.

It is obvious that Drug-IT is shaping up to be the biggest changemaker, facilitating a more coordinated supply chain within the African pharmaceutical market and ultimately improving the quality of life for all Africans and eventually, the world.

Drug-IT Solutions is currently undergoing its seed funding round.

When asked what it intends to do with the additional funding, the CEO, Odili Nonso, said: “With funding, the company will be well-positioned to expand its operations across the country, enhance its logistics capabilities, expand its marketing efforts, and improve its technology infrastructure for even better patient outcomes.”

Drug-IT is definitely a company poised to make an even greater impact on the healthcare industry in the years to come.