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A Dallas-based firm is helping
Rwanda keep tabs on its medicine supply chain, making sure drugs for diseases
like TB and AIDS are delivered on time and are not diverted or replaced with
counterfeits.
One Network Enterprises (ONE)
recently won a $1.7 million contract to provide Rwanda’s Ministry of Health
with a three-year subscription to cloud-based software to track packages of
medications from supply depots to patients. The software is used to note a
package’s chain of custody and, when medication is delivered to a patient, it
signals suppliers to ready another shipment.
“The black market around AIDS drugs
is a very big problem,” said Greg Brady, founder and CEO of ONE. Other ONE
clients include the US Marine Corps, which uses the network to track ammunition
supplies worldwide.
The US government set up the Supply
Chain Management System, a network of charities and logistics firms, to manage
the shipping process for drugs supplied by the President’s Emergency Plan for
AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Of $1.1 billion worth of medicines shipped from factories
to government warehouses, just 0.002 percent have been lost to theft or
counterfeiting.
Getting from such warehouses to
Rwanda’s 295 clinics that dispense antiretroviral therapy and other drugs is
complicated, however. As PEPFAR and its supply chain management evolve,
recipient countries have taken on more administrative and funding tasks.
Rwanda has its own drug-stock system
“in large part because of strong government leadership,” said Mamadi Yilla,
PEPFAR’s director of sustainability and integration. “You don’t hear much about
Rwanda’s program because Rwanda works.” Brady hopes ONE’s software solution
will strengthen that system further.
The Friends of AIDS Foundation is
dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and
empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV
virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.
TOGETHER WE REMAIN STRONG!
