SA pharmaceutical company wins innovation award

JOHANNESBURG – Pharmaceutical company, Kiara Health has been awarded the Africa Visionary Innovation Leadership Award by Frost & Sullivan for its efforts to raise the level of healthcare delivery in sub-Saharan Africa and for its technologies which include robotic devices and point-of-care diagnostic tools.

“Kiara Health’s nuanced understanding of the fast-growing sub-Saharan market allows it to tap into the opportunities presented by markets like South Africa, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Nigeria,” said Takudzwa Musiyarira, a research analyst at Frost & Sullivan.

“Its footprint in these four key markets makes it the ideal partner for the in-licensing, registering, and commercialisation of products from highly regulated markets.”

Kiara Health was formed some 18 months ago with the vision of becoming a pan-African pharmaceutical company with a mission to play a pivotal role in the overall improvement in the quality of life of people on the continent, president and CEO Dr Skhumbuzo Ngozwana said.

He said healthcare systems were facing significant challenges the world over in an uncertain regulatory landscape.

“As science develops, the nature of the products that we bring to the market and the ability to determine what is safe and not safe – means that the complexity of these markets is increasing. Regulatory systems have to keep up with that,” Ngozwana said.

“By necessity, the burden placed on companies to prove that their products are safe and effective is therefore rightfully increasing. When you put a product on the market, you need to be sure that it will be both beneficial and safe for patients.”

Kiara Health supplies therapeutic and physiological goods across disciplines such as respiratory, infectious diseases, oncology, cardio-metabolic, the central nervous system, analgesia, dermatology, anaesthesia, the gastrointestinal tract, and the genito-urinary tract.

– African News Agency (ANA)