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Glaxo Proposes Biopreparedness Unit for Outbreaks Like Zika
As the Zika virus spreads and concern grows about the world’s preparedness for outbreaks, GlaxoSmithKline Plc is proposing the creation of a unit dedicated to developing vaccines for diseases in markets offering little potential profit.
- Categories
- Health Care
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MTN South Africa May Pull Plug on Mobile Money
South Africa’s second largest mobile network by subscribers, MTN South Africa, has stopped signing up new Mobile Money customers as it studies the feasibility of the product.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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South Africa m-Health Startup Vula Mobile Diversifies Offering
South African startup Vula Mobile, which connects general health workers in remote areas with specialists in hospitals, has diversified its offering having seen positive uptake of its service targeting eye health.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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The Microfinance Business Model: Enduring Subsidy and Modest Profit
Microfinance institutions aim to serve customers ill-served by traditional commercial banks and thus the associated business model is challenging by definition. And yet the industry has achieved impressive scale reaching 211 million customers globally in 2013. Paradoxically, recent evidence suggests that the benefits of microcredit to borrowers may be modest. For example, six prominent randomized controlled trials found small impacts of access to microcredit on the incomes and consumption levels of marginal borrowers, though the studies found some “potentially important” (though modest) impacts on “occupational choice, business scale, consumption choice, female decision power, and improved risk management.” (Banerjee et al., 2015, p. 14).
- Categories
- Uncategorized
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Sisu Global Health Closing in on $1M Seed Round
The company that makes a low-cost blood transfusion device received the first investment from a new fund focused on Maryland startups.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Can Microfinance Still Make a Difference?
It's the Yangon entrepreneurial dream: a teashop in the suburbs to call your own. But for Ma Thandar, a 39-year-old mother of two, it is just a dream – and one she’s unlikely to be able to attain.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
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PEPFAR and AstraZeneca Launch Partnership Across HIV and Hypertension Services in Africa
The U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca today announced a $10 million (subject to the availability of funds), five-year global public-private partnership that will expand access to HIV/AIDS and hypertension services by offering them in an integrated manner at existing PEPFAR-supported HIV/AIDS sites, beginning in Kenya.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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The Rise of Black Start-Ups and Social Entrepreneurship in South Africa
With tough economic times and unemployment rising in an ever-changing world that is becoming more democratised, it is no surprise that there is a rise in black start-ups and social entrepreneurship. The reality for most black entrepreneurs is that they venture into entrepreneurship not of out career luxury, but rather out of the need to survive economically. Their long-term objective is not to create wealth, but merely to keep the business afloat while living off the profits.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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