Ghana’s Telehealth Startup ‘mPharma’ Set To Launch 100 Virtual Centers Across Africa

 MPharma, a Ghanaian health tech startup is set to open 100 virtual centers across seven markets in Africa over the next six months.

The company, founded by CEO Gregory Rockson, has the goal to deliver quality primary care in the communities they serve by providing medical examinations.

MPharma already provides about 10,000 physician consultations to patients at the startup’s network of pharmacies. Its also managed to raise over $50 million since inception; this includes a Series C round of $17 million, led by U.K.’s development arm CDC Group last year.

Other existing investors include Silicon Valley backer Jim Breyer of Breyer Capital, Shravin Bharti Mittal of Bharti Global Limited — an Indian Conglomerate, Social Capital, and Golden Palm Investments.

The company said the new centers would allow patients “to get examined remotely during a virtual consultation” making its approach to digital outreach “unique.”

It’s a big move and one that will be beneficial to those struggling to get care. According to World Health Organisation data, countries across sub-Saharan Africa have an average of 0.23 doctors for every 10,000 people. This is against the best ratio of 84.2 doctors in some of the most developed countries.

“We saw this as an opportunity to leverage our pharmacies as virtual doctor offices so that patients could get examined remotely during a virtual consultation. This is what makes mPharma’s telemedicine unique,” Rockson told TechCrunch.

Patients around the continent – in Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Zambia, Malawi, Rwanda, and Ethiopia, where mPharma has a presence, are set to benefit from the virtual consultations and it plans to raise more funding to further grow its business across the continent.

“We currently have five centers open. We have done an assessment of all our pharmacies and plan to establish the Mutti Doctor locations (the virtual centers) based on the needs of the community. We have already identified the first 100 locations,” Rockson added.