What You Should Know:
– The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded a $5M grant to Axmed, a healthcare technology company focused on transforming how lifesaving medicines are procured across Growth Markets.
– The grant, announced on May 21, 2025, during a high-level roundtable alongside the 78th World Health Assembly, will be deployed as a matching fund to enhance the procurement of maternal, newborn, and child health (MNCH) commodities in Sub-Saharan Africa through Axmed’s innovative platform.
– This initiative is expected to unlock up to $10M in MNCH procurement across selected African countries. It aims to strengthen national procurement capacities by offering Ministries of Health near-term liquidity, access to quality-assured MNCH commodities, and the benefits of pooled procurement and aggregated demand, ultimately driving cost-efficiency and supply security.
Addressing Critical Gaps in Maternal and Child Health
The grant comes as part of a global health movement to expand affordable access to high-quality medicines, particularly for vulnerable populations. Annually, 287,000 women die from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth, and 2.3 million newborns die within their first month, despite the existence of proven, cost-effective interventions. Weak procurement systems, constrained budgets, and fragmented supply chains persistently limit access to essential MNCH commodities in low-resource settings.
“Reducing the number of preventable deaths of mothers and babies is key to our work in sub-Saharan Africa,” said Cynthia Mwase, Director of Health, Africa, at the Gates Foundation. “This partnership with Axmed and local health leaders is an important step forward in ensuring that life-saving innovations reach the communities where they can make the greatest difference – so that more families can experience healthy pregnancies, safe births, and strong starts to life”.
Strengthening National Procurement Amidst Funding Challenges
The current global liquidity crunch, along with reductions in donor funding, has further challenged governments in securing necessary medicines. This grant directly responds to this issue by unlocking immediate financing while simultaneously enabling longer-term procurement reforms. The roundtable where the initiative was announced convened Ministers of Health, national procurement leads, and representatives from key multilateral organizations and philanthropic partners, highlighting a collaborative approach.
The Government of Rwanda has already experienced success with the Axmed platform. Dr. Loko Abraham, Chief Executive Officer for Rwanda Medical Supply, stated, “Through our partnership with Axmed, the Government of Rwanda has shown that meaningful improvements in the efficient and sustainable delivery of high-quality medicines across multiple therapeutic areas can be achieved. Now, through this matching fund, our partnership will expand this impact even further, reaching the most vulnerable with urgency and precision. This matching fund is a strategic step forward in reimagining procurement in a new era of global health: smarter, faster, and designed to deliver measurable results across the entire health system in collaboration with partners who are both innovative and purpose-driven”.
Axmed’s Platform: Unlocking Scale, Speed, and Savings
Axmed’s digital marketplace plays a crucial role by connecting institutional buyers directly with vetted suppliers, aggregating demand across countries, and consolidating procurement at scale. In 2024, Ministries and other procurers using the platform achieved average savings of 20–30%, with cost reductions for select MNCH products reaching up to 80%.
Beyond procurement, Axmed also partners with global logistics providers to manage end-to-end delivery, from the manufacturer to last-mile distribution, ensuring full tracking and traceability. The platform has been deployed across multiple low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) to support national and regional procurement strategies.
“This fund is a clear example of how catalytic financing and technology can work together to deliver immediate and lasting impact,” said Emmanuel Akpakwu, Founder & CEO of Axmed. “Our goal is not just to deliver quality medicines faster and more affordably, but to help build more resilient and efficient procurement systems for the future”.
