#BellaNaijaMCM Chibuzo Opara of DrugStoc is the Entrepreneur Dealing with the Scourge of Fake Drugs in Africa

One of the biggest challenges in Nigeria’s healthcare system is fake drugs; and it’s not just a challenge, it’s a killer – so many people have lost their lives or suffered grave health challenges as a result.

Our #BellaNaijaMCM this week Chibuzo Opara is working to change this. Together with his friend Adham Yehia, he founded DrugStoc, a cloud-based platform that links manufacturers of quality pharmaceutical products with healthcare retailers.

Chibuzo is a health economist with a clinical background with over 12 years in the health sector. He’s worked with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in he fields of healthcare finance and supply chain management.

You may never understand the impact of DrugStoc work until you see the statistics. According to a World Health Organisation (WHO) report, Africa alone accounts for 42% of globally detected cases of substandard and fake medical products, contributing to over 100,000 deaths annually in the continent.

Another WHO research says that  1 in 10 medical products circulating in low and middle-income countries is either substandard or falsified.

DrugStoc emerged one of the Top 10 finalists at Jack Ma‘s flagship program in Africa – Africa Netpreneur Prize Initiative.

The platform also recently secured a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to disrupt vaccine tracking through RFID technology.

Earlier this year, it also secured investment from Growth Capital by CcHub.

DrugStoc’s service systems are ISO 9001-2015 certified. It’s supply chain is end to end traceable and trackable all the way from the manufacturer’s warehouse to the patient ensuring zero room for counterfeit drugs to contaminate the healthcare retailer’s requested products.

DrugStoc currently serves more than 3,000 doctors and pharmacists.

The platform won the Technology-Driven Distributor Company of the Year award in the 2019 Nigerian Healthcare Excellence Awards.

We celebrate Chibuzo his contribution to building a healthier Africa and for saving lives in the process.