For Immediate Release: January 28, 2008

MSH Receives $2.8 Million Grant from Gates Foundation to Support Private-Sector Drug Seller Initiatives in East Africa

CAMBRIDGE, MA (JANUARY 28, 2008)—Management Sciences for Health (MSH) has received a three-year, $2.8 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to implement a strategy to improve people's access to medicines in developing countries.

The MSH program, which will be carried out in East Africa, will create a sustainable model to replicate and scale up private-sector drug seller initiatives based on the Accredited Drug Dispensing Outlet (ADDO) program in Tanzania. The resulting model and experiences will serve as examples for other countries and regions facing similar challenges in increasing access to medicines.

The East African Drug Seller Initiative addresses the problem of people in developing countries seeking advice and medicines from retail drug sellers who are largely untrained and unregulated. As a result, customers are less likely to receive quality pharmaceutical care and products or to be counseled on proper medicines and their correct doses.

To achieve the initiative’s goal, MSH will focus on three objectives that rely on collaboration with regional and country organizations; they are to:

• Help a regional organization become an advocate and facilitator for the implementation of private-sector drug seller initiatives in member countries;
   
• Revise the current ADDO model in Tanzania to strengthen its financial sustainability and institutionalize the public/private partnership roles to provide a scalable model for other countries; and
   
• Develop a plan to adapt the ADDO model for replication in a second East African country and demonstrate the adapted model in one district.

This grant builds on earlier MSH accomplishments through the Strategies for Enhancing Access to Medicines (SEAM) Program, also funded by the Gates Foundation. From 2000–2005, the program worked to improve access to quality medicines and services at retail drug outlets that often provide first-line health care, especially for those who live in remote, underserved areas. The results from SEAM form the foundation for the East African Drug Sellers Initiative.