SwipeRx
Location
Southeast Asia
Sector
Public Health
Type of Investment
Risk Capital
Project Stage
Test & Transition
Length of Investment
2016+
Website
Investment Overview
SwipeRx is a digital network of pharmacies in South East Asia, which aims to increase the availability and affordability of essential medicines and to improve adherence to regimens.
The Development Challenge
For a low-income patient in Southeast Asia, access to affordable medicines is a major challenge. The private pharmacy market is fragmented and low-capacity, meaning stock often runs out, and high prices are commonplace. Poor standards of health education often lead to low levels of regimens completion. For the healthcare provider or policymaker, a lack of information on what is being sold and how customers are behaving makes it difficult to make data-driven decisions with the potential to improve health outcomes.
The Innovation
SwipeRx is growing a digital network of pharmacies which, through mobile technology, provides patients with discounts and health advice, in return for collecting prescription data. It functions similarly to existing products in higher income countries. SwipeRx is therefore transitioning an established innovation to a challenging low-resource setting where, to date, few have managed to implement effectively. This previously untapped source of data enables analysis of key health trends in real time and garners insights that can advise healthcare policy and patient engagement strategies. SwipeRx is already the largest digital pharmacy network in South-East Asia, connecting one third of all pharmacists across Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Cambodia. It has become the largest mobile education provider for pharmacy professionals in the region, educating over 45,000. It is also the largest crowdsourced knowledge base for pharmacy practice, with over 70,000 answers generated on the platform, and the largest purchasing network of pharmacies in the region.
Our Investment
GIF’s $2 million equity investment will help to expand SwipeRx’s network of pharmacies, which will reduce healthcare expenditures and improve health outcomes for the poor in Southeast Asia. In 2019, GIF invested an additional $1 million in SwipeRx to scale up their supply chain work helping to quadruple the number of purchasing pharmacies in their network. In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, GIF approved a $120,000 grant to support an “Increasing Covid-19 Awareness and Reliable Information Dissemination at the Pharmacy'' programme in Southeast Asia.
Investment Objective
To reduce healthcare expenditure and improve health outcomes for the target beneficiaries, through improved access to pharmacists.
Why we invested
This intervention addresses multiple constraints for low income populations in South-East Asia, such as access, affordability, and adherence to regimens.
Unlocks big data sources that enable data-driven decision-making and thorough analysis of social impact.
Great potential to scale due to a capital-light business model and significant customer demand.
SwipeRx boasts a motivated and knowledgeable team that is motivated to grow the impact of the innovation.
SwipeRx in numbers
Pharmacy professionals educated on SwipeRx's platform
Pharmacy professionals across 7 countries connected
Use of GIF Funds
GIF’s initial investment of $2 million in SwipeRx in 2016 was to help onboard pharmacists and their pharmacies to join the network and expand geographic coverage. In 2019, GIF invested an additional $1 million in SwipeRx to scale up their supply chain work helping to quadruple the number of purchasing pharmacies in their network. In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, GIF approved a $140,000 grant to support a “Increasing Covid-19 Awareness and Reliable Information Dissemination at the Pharmacy” programme in South East Asia.
Impact to Date
SwipeRx has the largest digital pharmacy network in South East Asia, connecting one third of all pharmacists across Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Cambodia. It has become the largest mobile education provider for pharmacy professionals in the region, educating over 45,000. It is also the largest crowdsourced knowledge base for pharmacy practice, with over 70,000 answers generated on the platform, and the largest purchasing network of pharmacies in the region.
Beyond this, it has carried out specific public health programmes in the areas of Tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, Family Planning, Antimicrobial Resistance and Covid-19. In implementing these initiatives at the pharmacy level, it has partnered with the World Health Organisation (WHO), USAID, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Johns Hopkins University, and other public sector organisations. As an example, for tuberculosis, the SwipeRx pharmacy network has been used to better screen and identify suspected cases of tuberculosis and refer them to health facilities for confirmatory testing. To give another example of SwipeRx’s impact, when the Covid-19 pandemic hit, over 8,000 pharmacy professionals were rapidly educated on Covid-19 so that they could better protect themselves and the patients they care for.
Beyond this, SwipeRx has enhanced the supply chain interface between sub-distributors, wholesalers, and pharmacies, increasing the availability of medicines at the pharmacy level and reducing costs by obtaining medicines more rapidly and at lower costs. Such savings can then be passed onto patients. SwipeRx continues to rapidly scale its digital supply chain across South East Asia.
In 2020, under the Covid-19 response project, SwipeRx deployed digital surveys to understand the Covid-19 situation in pharmacies, disseminated Covid-19 awareness campaigns, and delivered digital Covid-19 educational modules in the Philippines, Indonesia, and Cambodia.