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Avon, Amway … Africa?: Can the direct sales agent model work for health goods at the BoP? Part 1
It’s not easy marketing health products to the BoP. Challenges range from remote distribution to customers’ limited awareness of the products’ benefits or correct usage. That’s why some companies are recruiting local sales teams to sell health products directly to their communities. But how can the Avon/Amway model work for low-margin goods at the BoP? The SHOPS Project analyzed five business models in Africa over 16 months. In Part 1 of this Q&A, lead researcher Michael Kubzansky describes its findings.
- Categories
- Education, Health Care, Social Enterprise
- Tags
- public health, research
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Pfizer sells key vaccine cheaply to poor countries
Drugmaker Pfizer Inc. has agreed to provide hundreds of millions of doses of its lucrative vaccine against pneumonia and meningitis at a fraction of the usual price for young children in poor countries.
- Categories
- Health Care
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$2 birth kit could prevent hundreds of deaths every day
What if you arrived at a hospital to give birth, only to be sent home because you didn’t bring your own delivery room supplies?
- Categories
- Health Care
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Heart Surgery in India for $1,583 Costs $106,385 in U.S.
Devi Shetty is obsessed with making heart surgery affordable for millions of Indians. On his office desk are photographs of two of his heroes: Mother Teresa and Mahatma Gandhi.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- South Asia
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Fighting HIV and Malaria in Uganda: Quality Chemical Industries produces low-cost antiretroviral drugs while spurring local manufacturing
Quality Chemical Industries produces low-cost antiretroviral drugs while spurring local manufacturing in Uganda. It has greatly increased the country’s access to malaria and HIV/AIDS treatment. The company is expanding, with hopes of exporting its drugs to other east African countries. But its growth has been held back by government subsidies of more expensive, imported drugs.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Tags
- public health
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GAVI aims to improve access to vaccines in Nigeria through supply chains project
Funding for cold chain equipment and improved data collection to support Nigeria’s Saving One Million Lives Initiative
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- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Insight: The poison pill in India’s search for cheap food
Nearly a decade ago, the Indian government ruled out a ban on the production and use of monocrotophos, the highly toxic pesticide that killed 23 children this month in a village school providing free lunches under a government-sponsored program
- Categories
- Agriculture, Health Care
- Region
- South Asia
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How Do You Design a Medical Gadget That Costs 95 Percent Less Than Before?
The Food and Drug Administration classifies an endoscope as a Class II medical device, but technically it’s just a long plastic tube with a light and camera at the end.
- Categories
- Health Care
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