A Nigeria-made malaria test that can diagnose the disease within 25 minutes using just drops of patients’ urine sample has won the inaugural 2015 Health Innovation Challenge Awards. The awards was instituted by the Private Sector Health Alliance of Nigeria (PHN) through the Nigeria Health Innovation Marketplace (NHIM). Urine Malaria Test (UMT), which is endorsed by the Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH) and approved by the National Agency for Food Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and developed by Fyodor Biotechnologies was the first among the five winning innovations from the 2015 Health Innovation Challenge. The overall performance of the UMT is equivalent to that of the Binax NOW blood test, the only malaria rapid test approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA).It has been shown that the private sector has the potential to expand the access to health services, improve quality of care and complement the public sector’s efforts in addressing health system challenges in the country. Co-Chair of PHN and Chairman of Zenith Bank, Jim Ovia, said: “The innovators are not making money but they are contributing to saving lives and improving society. We will give them all the support and definitely they will be making money in the future.” Chief Executive Officer of PHN, Dr. Muntaqa Umar-Sadiq said: “It is important to use innovative platforms to improve health. Despite millions of dollars invested in healthcare we are not seeing the result. So we need bold and innovative approach to improve our health indices.”
Umar-Sadiq said various players in the country including PHN, Health Strategy and Delivery Foundation (HSDF), Flint Atlantic Capital, International Finance Corporation (IFC) and others are already converging a market for healthcare social enterprise and impact investment capital. Meanwhile, the first runner up award went to Medical Devices as a Service (MDaaS) with a cash grant of $50,000 in addition to participate in the accelerated NHIM programme. MDaaS is a company that makes medical devices available, accessible and affordable to underserved health facilities across Nigeria. MDaaS provides hospitals with a range of device acquisition options and offer world-class service support with each device. The second runner up award went to e-Heal (Electronic Health Education in Any Language) with a grant of $30,000 and participation in the accelerated NHIM programme.
Source:Guardian News Online
