Field to Tackle Maternal Mortality Crisis in Africa with $11m

Emma Okonji

Field, a leading African healthtech company, yesterday announced the launch of a route-to-market service t\hat will introduce emerging therapies to tackle the urgency of maternal mortality, newborn and child health, along with nutrition.

The initiative will leverage Field’s proprietary technology, distribution, and financing services, which today powers a network of over 40,000 private and public healthcare providers in rural and urban areas across Kenya and Nigeria.

The initiative launches with an initial $11 million in support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, in recognition of Field’s commitment to introduce emerging therapies and supply chain transformation in combating Africa’s most urgent health priorities.

Since its inception in 2015, Field’s streamlined infrastructure has facilitated over 800 million health interventions across more than 60 therapeutic areas, such as family planning, HIV and Tuberculosis.

Starting in Kenya and Nigeria, with scope to expand to other regions, Field will advance on its unique capabilities within complex distribution channels to create an accelerated route to market for emerging therapies and technologies.

This is to include an extensive digitisation overhaul for private healthcare providers, hospitals and healthcare bodies at state and federal levels, with financing options to strengthen operations and purchasing capabilities.

Additionally, healthcare providers stand to benefit from last-mile delivery to improve day-to-day health services and the installation of pharma-grade refrigerators. In its entirety, the service will be reinforced by the establishment of a coalition to include governments, manufacturers and other key stakeholders for one of the continent’s most ambitious maternal health programs to-date.

Maternal mortality is one of the continent’s most pressing healthcare challenges. The likelihood that a woman will die in childbirth in Africa is 45 times higher than in Europe.

Report from World Health Organisation (WHO), showed that Africa accounted for 69 per cent of global maternal deaths, with Nigeria alone representing 29 per cent of all maternal deaths worldwide in 2020.

Field’s service will provide expectant mothers in Africa access to emerging therapies such as heat-stable carbetocin and calibrated drapes, which detect and treat postpartum haemorrhage, the leading cause of maternal mortality in Africa.

The platform will accelerate these new interventions, support established therapies, and address related complications like preeclampsia.

CEO and Founder of Field, Michael Moreland, said: “This is public health powered by technology and today’s news ecognizes the products and services that Field has built over the past eight years scaled and integrated into large-scale public health programs; this is what we believe health technology companies should be doing; joining innovative, impactful coalitions between private and public entities.”

“Digitally powering, networking, and financing health systems at scale will have an overwhelmingly positive effect on access to quality care. With funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation we are set to rapidly improve mother and child survival in every setting,’’ Moreland further said.