Gregory Rockson, the founder of M. Pharma, a healthcare firm, has announced the acquisition of a controlling stake in Health-plus Pharmacy, Nigeria’s first integrative pharmacy chain, over eight months after collecting $35 million in a Series-D funding round to expand its operations.
Following an agreement between M. Pharma and its previous investor, Alta Semper, the Ghanaian healthcare startup was able to acquire a majority stake in Health-plus Group. This announcement is the result of that deal.
According to Rockson, CEO and co-founder of M. Pharma, the acquisition aligns with the company’s mission to build a healthy Africa by providing life-changing healthcare services and drugs to patients.
“M. Pharma is deepening its long-standing commitment to Africa by re-imagining primary healthcare in some of the most vulnerable communities on the continent,” he said. “We continue to transform community pharmacies into primary care centers to provide affordable and accessible healthcare to all patients, so they can live not just longer but healthier lives.”
Afsane Jetha, co-founder and CEO of Alta Semper Capital, stated in her remarks on the acquisition that the Health-plus team is convinced that M. Pharma’s strategy of revolutionizing primary healthcare across Africa is the ideal steward for HealthPlus’s next chapter of growth.
She added that the management is excited to support the business going forward through a relationship with M. Pharma.
Founded in 2013 by Rockson, Daniel Shoukimas, and James Finucane, M. Pharma manages pharmaceutical inventories for African mom-and-pop pharmacies. It also offers unique financial and inventory management solutions to hospitals, as well as patients directly.
With 300 partner pharmacies in Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Zambia, Malawi, Rwanda, Ethiopia, and Gabon, M. Pharma has managed to upend the African healthcare industry since its founding more than nine years ago. The company serves around 1 million patients yearly through these locations.
With the purchase of HealthPlus Pharmacy, M. Pharma will have chances for growth in Nigeria and a platform to increase the number of pharmacies it operates on the continent thanks to its fast expanding QualityRx program.