What is the name of your organization?
Georgetown Global Health Ltd/Gte Nigeria
What is the name of your solution?
Jara Wellness Assist SafeMeds
Provide a one-line summary or tagline for your solution.
Ensuring community access to quality-assured antibiotics to combat substandard and falsified drugs through automated authentication system in Nigeria
In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?
Abuja, Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria
In what country is your solution team headquartered?
Nigeria
What type of organization is your solution team?
Nonprofit
Film your elevator pitch.
What specific problem are you solving?
Substandard and falsified (SF) medicines pose a severe global health threat, particularly in Nigeria, where the prevalence of SF antibiotics was estimated at 16.7% in a 2005 study—well above the 10% global average (WHO, 2017). With a population exceeding 200 million, Nigeria faces a significant public health crisis due to SF medicines, leading to treatment failures, antimicrobial resistance (AMR), prolonged hospital stays, increased mortality, and reduced public trust in healthcare. Weak regulatory oversight, a complex and poorly monitored supply chain, and low community awareness exacerbate the problem.
Despite efforts by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), existing solutions such as Truscan, GPHF Minilab, and the Mobile Authentication Service (MAS) have faced technological fragmentation, lack of real-time surveillance, inadequate pharmacovigilance, and poor coordination among regulatory bodies NAFDAC, Pharmacy Council of Nigeria, Veterinary Council of Nigeria, etc. The MAS system, intended to authenticate medicines via scratch codes, suffered multiple service providers, confusing codes, and phased implementation that deprioritized animal health.
To address these gaps, a more integrated, sustainable, and coordinated technology-driven approach is needed to combat SF antibiotics, strengthen supply chain monitoring, enhance pharmacovigilance, and ultimately safeguard public health in Nigeria.
What is your solution?
At the core is Jara Wellness Assistant (JWA), a generative AI chatbot deployed via WhatsApp and Telegram used for patient support and provider education for HIV/TB programs in Nigeria, with ongoing pilots in Cameroon, Kenya, Botswana, and Haiti for public health events. This platform will be adapted for JWA-SafeMeds to provide real-time drug authentication and health education and integrated with NAFDAC’s Greenbook database with analytic dashboard for collaborative surveillance in the NAFDAC- situation room (SR) that is interoperable with existing systems such as SORMAS and DHIS2, allowing users to verify drug authenticity by entering a batch number or uploading an image of the label. If the drug is unauthorized, expired, or banned, JWA provides instant feedback, reducing the circulation of SF medicines. To ensure wider accessibility, we will deploy a USSD-based verification system for feature phones, using batch numbers instead of scratch panels for faster implementation. GGHN’s Chatterhub, a social media mining tool, will track online discussions on SF drugs and adverse drug reactions, generating insights for community education and leading investigations. GGHN jointly deployed the NPCHDA-PHC functionality assessment and mobile geotagging tool will enable citizens to report suspicious drug outlets, feeding real-time data to a NAFDAC-SR.
Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?
Our solution directly serves Nigeria’s over 200 million people, including patients, healthcare providers (human and animal), pharmaceutical companies, importers, drug vendors, and government regulatory agencies. With 9,000 hospitals and clinics, 4,500 pharmacies, and an estimated 100,000 Patent and Proprietary Medicine Vendors, access to safe and authenticated medicines is critical. However, the high prevalence of SF medicines, 16.7% in Nigeria compared to the 10% global average, poses significant health risks, including treatment failure, antimicrobial resistance, and death.
For the public, our solution offers a simple and reliable way to verify drug authenticity, reducing the risk of purchasing fake or substandard medicines and improving health outcomes. Community pharmacies and drug vendors will benefit from enhanced stock verification and supply chain confidence, ensuring safer procurement and dispensing practices.
For importers and manufacturers, the solution strengthens supply chain efficiency, reduces warehouse theft, and improves stock control, enhancing brand reputation and quality assurance.
NAFDAC and other regulatory agencies will gain real-time surveillance and tracking capabilities, enabling swift identification of fake drugs, batch tracking, and effective prevention and response strategies.
By integrating drug authentication, monitoring, and reporting, our solution enhances Nigeria’s pharmaceutical integrity, reducing SF medicines and strengthening trust in the healthcare system.
