As part of its Global Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited has awarded International Medical Corps ¥906 million (roughly $6.3 million) over a four-year period to deploy its Pharmaceutical Information Management System (PIMS) across healthcare facilities in Kenya and Somalia, improving health services for millions of people there.
Each year, Takeda’s Global CSR program empowers the firm’s 50,000 employees worldwide to participate in the selection of a new set of philanthropic partners and initiatives. One of the initiatives they have chosen this year is an International Medical Corps project titled, “Last-Mile Shield: Fortifying Health Supply Chains through Data-Driven Insights,” which addresses persistent health supply-chain challenges in remote areas beset by extreme weather and other natural disasters.
Too often, medicines and other health supplies are unable to bridge the “last mile” to reach rural villages—meaning that millions cannot access the care they need when they need it most. A broken supply chain also undermines public healthcare, because health officials lack the real-time information they need to assess needs and respond appropriately. As a result, some 70% of funds spent on medicines and supplies in such settings are wasted. People die of preventable causes while health authorities do not have the data they need to improve the situation.
International Medical Corps’ PIMS—already deployed in more than 20 countries globally—solves this problem by tracking medicines and supplies to the patient with 99.8% accuracy. By offering full functionality in remote environments and AI analytics, PIMS also provides decisionmakers with insights into public health trends—transforming the strength and flexibility of the health system, even in the face of natural disasters. PIMS helps to ensure that the right items are available in the right place at the right time, immediately improving service delivery, saving lives and restoring trust in health systems.
“Thanks to Takeda’s extremely generous support, we will be able to help Kenya and Somalia’s healthcare systems overcome significant supply-chain challenges,” said Nancy Aossey, President and CEO of International Medical Corps. “This award will enable us to deploy PIMS across 1,200 healthcare facilities and provide millions of mothers and children with lifesaving care. We also will be able to train thousands of healthcare workers, ensuring long-term impact.”
Over the four-year deployment, the project will help more than 5.6 million people—including almost 1 million mothers and pregnant women, and more than 2 million children—in the two countries. International Medical Corps will work closely with the nations’ Ministries of Health during the project and ultimately transfer the systems to their staff and other local stakeholders.
In addition to improving the delivery of medicines and health services, the project will enable providers to save money, better allocate scarce resources and reduce waste. Thanks to Takeda and its employees, health systems—and communities—in Kenya and Somalia will be stronger and more resilient.