A Global Channel for Equitable Access to Essential Medical Products

VIA Global Health is a distribution channel for information about,and access to emergency, essential, and innovative medical supplies.  The online platform and customer services, serve buyers in low-middle-income countries, and suppliers and innovators seeking to enter and expand into new markets- closing an access gap during health emergencies.

Noah Perin is CEO and co-founder at VIA Global Health. His earlier professional experience exposed him to inequitable distribution of medical supplies which leads to disparities in health care.

Emerging markets worldwide, including sub-Saharan Africa and nearly all of Latin America, represent a significant and rapidly growing market for medical equipment and medical devices - over $130 billion dollars, growing at 6% per year. Yet, as of 2021 only 1 of every 8 major medical equipment manufacturers has any presence in these markets. The result: healthcare providers, clinics, NGOs, and private and public hospital networks, and the agencies that procure and distribute and service their medical material, are cannot access tools they need to deliver quality, affordable healthcare to more than 5.8 billion people.

Market failures and fragmentation affect buyers in LMICs who cannot get the attention of suppliers. This disconnect is due to (1) a clear way to exchange information about buyer needs or seller offerings, (2) selling directly into small markets and to small buyers who lack purchasing power is inefficient for manufacturers, (3) a lack of established sales and shipping pathways between manufacturers and distributors makes transactions risky for both sellers and buyers, and (4) lack of working capital or access to affordable capital for buyers. 

COVID-19 has exposed and exacerbated inequities and inefficiencies in already fragmented markets.

VIA Global Health primarily serves buyers in LMICs who are small-medium sized enterprises that distribute or utilize medical equipment and supplies, and secondarily the suppliers or innovators seeking to reach those buyers.

For buyers, VIA's platform (website and services) serves as a channel to learn about, purchase, and receive the essential medical supplies that enable quality health care.  The feedback we get through this channel is both quantitative data about demand, as well as qualitative data from the "voice of buyers" and buyer interviews- all of which can help us optimize our service offerings, product portfolio, product improvements to better meet their needs.  Furthermore, by accepting smaller volume purchases, we support these SMEs to introduce new products and expand their own market growth.

For suppliers (manufacturers and innovators), our services and expertise provide important insights into preparing to successfully enter new markets, prioritize geographies and target customers, and reduce the capital required to serve multiple and fragmented markets in LMICs.

For the global health community, our data and customer engagement can contribute to greater understanding of procurement behaviors, emerging or existing demand, accelerate the impact and sustainability of promising life-saving technologies, and provide a complementary channel to other procurement initiatives.

In itself, VIA Global Health provides a public good by providing a global channel for equitable access to both information about products and health interventions, and to products themselves.  Equity is in the company DNA, our focus is on SME and buyers who otherwise do not have a reasonable procurement pathway that is available to them.   Our business model does not pass on costs to our customers, rather we charge our suppliers a 12% sales commission in exchange for managing the financial transactions and logistics for delivery. 

Of equal importance as a public good, VIA's website provides content and tools about important health issues for which medical products can serve as solutions, which are free and accessible on our website, as is product information.  Pricing transparency is available for registered users.

The data is also a public good to the extent it can be useful for global health stakeholders to plan, respond, and recover from health emergencies.

VIA Global Health has been and remains committed to impact communities and SMEs in LMICs who are otherwise underserved by current distribution channels and the inequities within the global supply chain.

The way in which our platform and services target underserved populations, is that we remove points of friction between buyers and users of medical products, and the suppliers who manufacture those products.  

More specifically, the following activities reduce those points of friction for BUYERS and SUPPLIERS:

• Equitable distribution and availability of relevant clinical and product information on our website
• De-risked financial transactions (VIA manages the process on behalf of both)
• Global logistics
• Portfolio that offers choice and strong product-market fits
• Seller support through market feedback
• Customer service team dedicated to addressing questions and instilling confidence in the sales process
• Ability and willingness to manage smaller volume purchases
• Digital outreach through appropriately targeted marketing and advertising

As a result of these activities (products and services), draws in otherwise underserved buyers, and help suppliers enter or expand into new markets that would otherwise be untenable.  Our track record of impact is on a strong trajectory, expected to far exceed 2 million by end of 2021.

VIA Global Health has identified the following strategic initiatives to successfully and sustainably scale our impact; they are all essential for a timely and resource efficient response to health emergencies such as COVID-19.

• Comprehensive analytics capacity and digital marketing - VIA is a data-driven organization; our marketing and analytics capacities build awareness for what is available, help sellers reach more buyers, and provide a voice for our customers. 
• Product portfolio differentiation - Expanding our offering of medical supplies for pandemics and other health emergencies, global health innovations and standard of care equipment to include other key products that are needed to support improved healthcare
• Streamlined logistics - Reducing costs and improving speed, reliability, and customer experience through innovative approaches that leverage customer demand data to drive shipping cost negotiations and localized supply chain resilience. 
• Equitable financing support - A key challenge and driver of distribution inequity is access to capital.  Leveraging advanced financing vehicles, we seek to improve buyers access to capital and contribute toward equitable and equal opportunity access to funds.

These efforts will allow us to reach more buyers, engage more suppliers, facilitate more transactions and add value to the global health emergency ecosystem.

By focusing on SME sellers and buyers in underserved markets, we ensure that appropriate, more affordable equipment is accessible in markets that would otherwise be ignored.  Our goal is to continue leveling the playing field so that buyers have transparent information by which to make informed purchase decisions and access to those tools regardless of where they are or their overall purchasing power, while also supporting manufacturers to compete and efficiently enter markets.

Our impact goal is to positively impact the lives of 3 million people by 2023, and to be profitable and sustainable in the business model. 

We derive our impact numbers using data and research from our sellers substantiated with their manufacturer, regulatory information, and other research.

VIA tracks three key growth metrics: (1)Revenue – Total earned income (inclusive of product sales, shipping, market insights consulting, etc., excluding grant revenue); (2) Transactions – Number of orders placed; (3) Average Order Value (AOV) – Average value of each order 

VIA is also able to monitor trends in User and Buyer Engagement as proxies for demand. 

Together, we can monitor our impact by products, buyer types, and geographies.

In addition to needing our own capital flow to more rapidly scale, one of the primary barriers we confront in the short-term and potentially long-term is access to financing for our buyers.

Many SMEs in LMICs do not have access to working capital or reasonable financing vehicles.  This has become even more evident during COVID-19, when that access to capital has precluded them (and as a result, VIA) from being able to compete for PPE and oxygen/critical care products in the global marketplace.  This barrier also precludes them from strategic decisions in inventory and introducing new products to their own customers, meaning that market introduction and expansion is more slow and incremental than it would be if smaller, independent buyers could compete in their own markets, let alone the global market. 

A second challenge that we seek to address is in logistics and warehousing closer to customers. It is our view that VIA could and should facilitate more regional transactions, which would likely confer time and financial efficiencies to buyers and end users.

VIA Global Health is a grant recipient of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to support our work in maternal and newborn health.

Draper Richards Kaplan and Sorenson are our primary investors.

The Trinity Challenge would enable VIA Global Health to commit resources specifically to focusing our strategic initiatives in the area of health emergencies.  

We know that access and equity are always barriers in equitable health outcomes and impact.  VIA offers a solution that is already built and ready to "serve the market" as evidenced by our achievements to date. However, even our own ability to respond to the needs of our buyers could be amplified and expanded if we had more resources to aggressively pursue our strategic initiatives with a dedicated lens on responding to health emergencies.

VIA is proud that we are committed to a sustainable solution, we believe that resources from Trinity Challenge would not only support the scaling of our model to better serve buyers in LMICS during COVID-19 and other emergencies, but also serve the portfolio of emerging innovations that are product related to respond to these emergencies.  IN other words, VIA can provide a channel and platform for other Trinity investments (and other global health stakeholders' investments) to reach communities in need and who may not have access to other procurement platforms or resources. 

It is probably evident by now that VIA Global Health is neither a scientific innovation, nor a technology innovation, but rather a supply chain distribution solution that can accelerate the impact of other health emergency products and information.

For that reason, VIA would be interested in partnering with any of the Trinity Challenge members that can assist us in the priority areas of data analytics, marketing, and business services for customers in LMICs.