Two billion people worldwide live without reliable access to essential medicines. To fill the gap, NGOs partner with multinational pharmaceutical companies who donate excess stock as part of their CSR programmes.

However, the distribution of donated medicines is highly complex due to regulations surrounding the storage, transportation, and distribution to ensure patient safety and medicine efficacy. NGOs struggle to meet the demands of compliance as they source, import, and distribute medicines. This complexity limits the volume of medical donations despite industry support and vast global need.

Suffering due to a lack of healthcare is a big problem, but it doesn’t need to be. Boaz is a Software as a Service (SaaS) product making it easier to distribute more healthcare products to more people in need.  It provides a platform to match medicines directly to needs, all while fulfilling compliance regulations essential for pharmaceutical companies and patients.

As a charity operating in the medical donations space, International Health Partners (IHP) has seen first-hand that many healthcare companies want to do more to support communities but are often prevented or put off by the labour-intensive processes involved and the compliance risks posed. Simultaneously, NGOs supporting low and middle-income countries experience challenges in delivering the right aid to the right place. In Boaz, IHP has built a scalable system to bridge the gap between healthcare companies and NGOs.

Ensuring compliance and tracking donated products throughout the supply chain is crucial in maintaining the integrity of the delivery of humanitarian aid, which is otherwise vulnerable to being infiltrated by substandard or falsified medicines.

Through Boaz, we empower the pharmaceutical industry to do more good through medical product donations. We recognise that there is a huge opportunity to improve health outcomes for millions of people who would otherwise lack access through medical donations, and Boaz makes this opportunity easier, more efficient, fully transparent and compliant.

Pharmaceutical companies wish to see better access to healthcare globally. NGOs are well-placed to receive and distribute excess stock to people in need. Boaz enables the compliant and effective distribution of donated medical products. It has the potential to transform the future of product donations within the pharmaceutical sector.

Boaz has been instrumental to IHP’s growth in size and impact. It has empowered IHP to reach more people than ever before. In 2022 alone, IHP distributed over ten times more treatments than before the Boaz system’s creation in 2019. In 2023, we have distributed over 2 million treatments worth £2.69 million, to 15 counties, helping over 600,000 people worldwide.

Further to IHP’s own use of Boaz, two multinational corporate clients have adopted Boaz during the past year resulting in upwards of 24 million units of medicine or medical supplies so far. 46 NGOs use Boaz to view, consider and accept donations. The time saved in terms of reporting and processing a donations programme is considerable, resulting in the increased quantity of product donations, as experienced by IHP.

Kim Keller, Johnson & Johnson’s Corporate Contributions Manager says of the platform: “Without Boaz, we would have no idea of the status of a major donations program!”

Boaz is the result of IHP’s partnership with the pharmacy industry, NGOs, and social enterprise, SuperBeing Labs. It is a unique and first-in-class system recently brought to market. Boaz is a great example of a charity working creatively with industry and a social enterprise tech developer to overcome challenges blocking the efficient delivery of vital services. It has been built on a small budget by a small team – but is having a massive impact, with more to come!

Based on IHP’s twenty-year experience in medical product donations, Boaz raises the bar of good medical product distribution. It makes managing the complexities of the product donation process easier so pharmaceutical companies can partner with more NGOs to deliver more healthcare products to more people in need.

Boaz offers a multiplier effect; exponentially increasing the quantity and quality of medical aid distribution globally, the impact of which is as exciting as it is immeasurable!