Health

The medical-surgical clinic PROCREA, based in Abidjan, began operating in 2008. It specializes in the field of reproductive health and is the leader in Côte d’Ivoire in Assisted Reproductive Health Care (AMP), a technique that treats people with infertility issues and helps them to achieve parenthood.

PROCRÉA also provides mother-child care, including obstetrical gynecology, neonatology (newborn care), and pediatrics.

The vision of PROCREA's promoters is to popularize the practice of MAP in order to make it accessible to a greater number of people. The clinic aims to become one of the leaders in the sector in Côte d'Ivoire and West Africa, complying with the requirements and standards of the international medical sector. In ten years of activity, the clinic has already accompanied more than 500 couples.

THE ENTREPRENEUR

PROCRÉA was created in 2006 under the initiative of Dr. Myriam Kadio-Morokro Brou, principal promoter, and Professor Marie-Laure Hauhouot Attoumgbré, co-promoter, both of whom are recognized experts in Côte d'Ivoire in the fields of biology and reproductive sciences. Later they were joined by 3 other renowned health professionals in Côte d'Ivoire.

After obtaining her bachelor's degree in France, Dr. Kadio-Morokro Brou joined the Faculty of Medicine in Abidjan where she graduated in 2001 and did a thesis on reproductive biology. Passionate about the subject, she then returned to France to complete her studies in reproductive biology, sterility therapy, molecular cytogenetics and male sterility. During her stay in France she worked in several hospitals, hospitals and laboratories.

Back in Côte d'Ivoire in 2005, she suggested to her friend Prof Attoumgbré to join her in the PROCREA clinic project, which they founded in 2006. PROCREA’s activities officially started in 2008.

► To know more, discover the interview of Dr. Kadio-Morokro Brou

PARTNERSHIP WITH I&P 

I&P committed alongside with PROCRÉA to:

• Restructure the project to focus on the medical offer dedicated to reproduction

• Financing and supporting the construction of a new, larger clinic, better adapted to PROCRÉA's needs and designed in an environmentally friendly way (treatment of medical waste, rainwater recovery, reduction in energy consumption, etc.)

• Support the management team in the running of the clinic

EXPECTED IMPACTS

• Make reproductive health care available to the greatest number of people

• Improve the quality of care

• Increase the clinic's capacity

Nest is a medical network settled in Senegal, offering a complete monitoring of woman and young child.

Founded in 2012, NEST provides a complete monitoring of woman and children thanks to a pediatric and maternity hospital. NEST offers high-quality health services at reasonable price, primarily aimed at middle classes. Accessible 24/24 and 7/7, NEST puts a particular emphasis seeing and listening to patients, and allows young women of child-breeding age to be followed until the birth, and a follow-up of their children until they are 15 years old.

This model, inspired from the Indian private chain of maternity hospitals Lifespring Hospital, is particularly relevant in Senegal, where local medical offer is shared between expensive private clinics and public infrastructures suffering from a lack of technical means and standards. NEST embodies a gap-filling role within this market.

NEST is one of the companies featured by the project Small is Powerful

The Entrepreneur

Khadidiatou Nakoulima grew up in Senegal and graduated from Mines de Paris in 2009. Several members of her family working in the medical field, Khady is deeply aware of the health issues in Senegal. She founded NEST in 2012 with the help of her father, Alassane, her brother Ousseynou and Dr. Adboulaye DIOP, gynaecologist. Khadidiatou currently manages the company. She aims at establishing a health network dedicated to woman and children in West Africa for low and middle-income populations.

Partnership with I&P

I&P is committed alongside Nest for All to:

• Provide a preliminary expertise regarding maternity and its equipment

• Finance the equipment and complete the maternity construction site

• Bring a support to the administrative and financial management teams (Management and information system, contracts with doctors…)
 

Key Impacts

• Improvement of children and pregnant women medical follow-up

• Larger health services access to the greater

• Medical waste management

Pharmivoire Nouvelle is an Ivorian lab processing medical intravenous solutions. Pharmivoire was created when Copharminvest Holding bought the industrial lab PHARMIVOIRE in 1999. It is for now the only lab to locally produce and sell soft-packed intravenous solutions in French-Speaking West Africa. The company aims at becoming a leader on the West African Economic and Monetary Union, a market in real demand for medical goods while the sub-regional market imports 90% of this type of equipment.

COPHARMINVEST HOLDING was created in 1993 by the Ivorian Order of Pharmacists in order to comply with practitioners needs and set up economic tools within their sector by filling local industry needs as opportunities arise. This council gathers more than 100 private pharmacists.

THE ENTREPRENEURS

Dr. Elizabeth Kacou is Chairman of the Board of Directors of Pharmivoire. Dr. Kacou is an officine-managing pharmacist with a dual profile  enhanced  by several management trainings (HEC Paris, HEC Executive Ivory Coast). 

The management of the company is held by Peter Aouely, the first non-pharmacist manager of the company with a strong entrepreneur background and a solid sense of business he acquired during his study at the Business School of Abidjan (ESCA).

PARTNESHIP WITH I&P

I&P is committed alongside with Pharmivoire:

• To finance a new type of equipment that will produce more profitable packs

• To set up employee profit-sharing plans with a bonus system

KEY IMPACTS

• Imports reduction on the intravenous solutions market

• Strong local added value

• Highly-qualified jobs

• Structured local pharmaceutic sector

Colaser is an ophthalmologic clinic aiming at responding to the needs of a broad and diverse clientele such as individuals, employees under healthcare programs, retired people, middle-class people, and foreigners. The clinic has followed an unfluctuating growth since its creation. It carries out 10,000 consultations and 1,400 medical procedures every year, among which 110 retinal detachments and as many refractive eye surgery.

Colaser stands as the most important ophthalmologic center in terms of equipment and expertise. It substitutes to medical travels in Europe for numerous diagnostics and cares. Within a few years, Colaser has become a model for West-African ophthalmological clinics, and attracts a steady flow of patients from neighbor countries.

ENTREPRENEURS

Colaser was created in 2007 when the care supply was highly insufficient. It was initiated by 4 doctors: Pr. Lam, Dr. Seck, Dr. Jouni and Dr. Jaffar. Aliou Lam and Makane Seck are military doctors and surgeons. They formerly worked at the Hopital Principal of Dakar and took the chance, while leaving the army, to settle in Senegal and invest in the private sector.

PARTNERSHIP WITH I&P

I&P committed alongside with Colaser :

• To provide a key financial and strategic support at the company’s creation

• To grant the founders a loan that would enable them to purchase high-technology pieces of equipment

• To strengthen the administrative service of the clinic.

KEY IMPACTS

• 21 jobs created

• Improvement of the local medical offer

• Successful example of associated doctors

Viseo distributes and sells optical items through a retail network in Abidjan. Settled in 3 different shops, the network plans to expand all over the country. In Ivory Coast, the formal offer is crippled by broadly unaffordable prices and endangered by more attractive informal offer provided by “ground chemistries”. With lower prices and ready availability, these “ground chemistries” provide cheap quality goods. Viseo intends to fill this gap with free sight-examinations offered to all and information campaigns organized in schools, private companies and communities

THE ENTREPRENEUR

Franck Touré is an optician and an optometrist. He chairs the Ivorian association of the eye professionals. He has worked in France for a long time then came back to Ivory Coast to lead a famous French optical outlet in Abidjan. He also teaches at the Optometry School of Ivory Coast. He manages Investissements & Développement, a holding promoting development through the support brought to SMEs, which is behind the group “Vue & Vision”. He has long strived in favor of the access to affordable care for all.

PARTNERSHIP WITH I&P

I&P is committed alongside with Viseo

• To promote the brand launch : campaign, shop opening

• To provide commercial and financial support

• To undertake the recovery plan after the Ivorian political crisis

IMPACTS

• 2,000 persons are given free screening examinations each year

• Over a hundred good-quality equipment distributed each year in Ivory Coast

GENEMARK processes generic drugs (anti-infectious, anti-parasitic, anti-inflammatory …) and aims at the largest distribution scale thanks to an offer 30% to 50% cheaper than classical drugs. Genemark developers favor the production of liquid drugs (15 references over 27) in order to reduce overdose risks, particularly high in paludism treatments for children.

Report on Genemark (in French)

THE ENTREPRENEUR

Gisele Etamé decided in 2003 to launch her own pharmaceutical laboratory. As a Doctor in pharmacy, she took the opportunity to develop pharmaceutical products available for all after the Cameroonian Ministry of Health authorized the sale of generic medicine. Thanks to her strife over the last decade, Genemark is now a major label in the local pharmaceutical industry.

PARTNERSHIP WITH I&P

I&P is committed alongside GENEMARK:

• To enable the reference range enlargement 

• To finance the production capacity growth

• To keep a watch over the products quality   

• To supervise the deployment of a sales force

• To improve the governance

KEY IMPACTS

• Number of jobs created or maintained: 20

• Genemark has improved the access to health by offering medicines 30 to 50% less expensive than licensed  medicines

• Turnover annual growth on average since 2008: +14%

DUOPHARM was created in 2003 under the initiative of a merger of nearly 150 Senegalese pharmacists. Since then, the company achieved a breakthrough in the Senegalese pharmaceutical landscape thanks to its proximity marketing strategy. Local pharmaceutics market is characterized by high competitive intensity and a strong presence of European multinational companies. However this market is experiencing very strong growth in Senegal, where health spending per capita increased sharply since the early 2000s. Thus since 1999, the number of drugstore has doubled since 1999 and the pharmaceutical market shows an annual increase of about 6%.

THE ENTREPRENEUR

Jules Charles Kebe, Director of Duopharm, was medical sales representative for Pfizer and led the COPHASE, second wholesaler-distributor of Senegal from 1999 to 2002. 

PARTNERSHIP WITH I&P

I&P committed alongside with DUOPHARM: 

• To deepen with developers, and with the support of a pharmacist who had a similar experience in Mali, the initial financial projections and action plan

• To provide funding to the company at its inception and contributing to capital increases

• To elaborate the financial strategy

EXIT

In 2016, I&P sold its shares to the pharmacists who founded the company.

KEY IMPACTS

• Emergence of a local player in the pharmaceutical distribution (both leaders are subsidiaries of French companies)

• 89 jobs in 2015, which is a 20% increase compared to 2014

• 25% of the employees are women 

• 4 400 references of pharmaceutical products distributed to over 500 customers 

• 17 local suppliers 

Saphar, a Nigerian company established in 1999, is the third largest pharmaceutical distributor in the country, after two subsidiaries of international groups. The company supplies the rural and public hospitals in Niger with generics. The project initially aimed to improve the offer in these underserved areas.

The Entrepreneurs

Since 1999, after the liberalization of the sector, Mahamane Sekou, Doctor of Pharmacy and former Director of the Public Pharmaceutical Supply Centre has teamed up with his friend Djibrilla Hima, a former senior official, to create the largest private medicines distributor in Niger. They gathered around them a few pharmacists from Niamey to complete the roundtable and start the business.

I&P’s partnership 

I&P committed alongside with Saphar:

• To replenish its capital in 2006, when the company has experienced some difficulties

• To help it obtain a renewed confidence from the local banking sector

• To redefine its strategy, with an emphasis on the development of sectors outside Niamey, shunned by other players

• To develop a range of quality generic products

• To improve management processes and information systems

Impacts 

 • 10 jobs created

• Improved access to generic high-quality medicines for inland populations

CAMED is the third largest pharmaceutical distributor in Mali and the leader on the generics market. Created in 1995 and initially Specialized in generic drugs, CAMED was subsequently transformed into a universal distributor, and offers a diverse range of pharmaceutical products. Since the lifting of pharmaceutical monopoly of the Pharmacie Populaire du Mali, this wholesale has become a major player in the availability and distribution of drugs, including specialty drugs and consumables.

EXIT

After 8 years of coaching, I&P sold its shares in 2011 to local pharmacists and the main pharmaceutical wholesaler provider of CAMED. The fund leaves behind a formal company, with well-structured quality management, and a turnover tripled. CAMED is now # 3 on the market challenger of two multinationals with a reported return on investment of over 20%.

THE ENTREPRENEUR

Malick Sy is a doctor graduated from the University of Bamako in pharmacy. His desire to undertake led him at the end of his studies to refuse job offers. He started an import and distribution of pharmaceutical products, starting with a motorcycle and funds borrowed from relatives. His business sense, its strategic direction and ability to surround himself with good managers and teams have enabled him to win in CAMED’s outstanding success. He is determined to prove that it is possible for local players to shine in a competitive environment of the pharmaceutical market.

PARTNERSHIP WITH I&P

I&P is committed alongside with CAMED:

• By helping to structure and strengthen management and business accounting

• By investing in storage spaces and rolling stock

• By organizing the marketing approach and enlargement of the product portfolio

• By helping to raise bank loans to finance the stock of medicines

KEY IMPACTS

• Creating a dozen jobs

• Development of a range of quality generic products at affordable prices