Boehringer Ingelheim and Ashoka host co-creation workshop under Making More Health

United Arab Emirates, Dubai – 12 June, 2018: Boehringer Ingelheim, one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies, and Ashoka, the world's largest network of social entrepreneurs, have held a co-creation workshop for the ‘Making More Health’ (MMH) Accelerator in Nairobi, Kenya. The MMH Accelerator program supports social entrepreneurs in the healthcare space to strengthen and scale their work. The program brings together some of the best experiences in social innovation and global health to improve access to healthcare systems across Sub-Saharan Africa.

Along with capacity building as well as technical and financial support to develop, pilot and test their co-creation ideas with Boehringer Ingelheim and Ashoka, the social entrepreneurs participating in the program will receive trainings on business model innovation, market strategy and scaling models. Through the accelerator process, social entrepreneurs participating in the Accelerator will have access to a network of professional support, including Boehringer Ingelheim and Ashoka experts.

The MMH Accelerator combines Ashoka’s expertise in social entrepreneurship with Boehringer Ingelheim’s business acumen and knowledge of the healthcare industry. The participating projects address several themes such as providing medical care in remote areas in a more effective and sustainable manner, digital platforms that support integrated care for patients with chronic diseases, and increasing transparency within the pharmaceutical supply chain.

In order to place patients at the core of their care, it is imperative that they receive the right treatment paradigm. Through various programs and activities, Boehringer Ingelheim contributes to providing healthcare solutions and access across Africa, with structured activities that range from adequate awareness building and prevention of diseases, training and education of healthcare professionals, technology transfer as well as social innovation.

Simon Manyara, Access to Healthcare Manager at Boehringer Ingelheim commented, “Over the years, our social initiatives in Kenya have been connecting people with timely and effective healthcare solutions. These co-creation thinking workshops, as part the accelerator, are helping address the most critical topics. We want to foster local social innovation and increase access to healthcare among underserved communities and strengthen the potential of these projects through the immense knowledge pool within our talent and global operations network.”

MMH is a core driver of social entrepreneurship, innovation and co-creation for Boehringer Ingelheim across the world. Other social healthcare initiatives that have been developed under the Ashoka and Boehringer Ingelheim partnership include iSikCure, an application developed to improve access to quality care and safe medicine. Similarly, in 2017, working with Access Afya and Pharm Access Foundation, Boehringer Ingelheim launched Akiba Ya Roho, a micro-savings and disease management program that aims to drive more healthcare awareness and overall understanding and management of non-communicable disease in Kenya. The mobile wallet solution provides a technical platform that allows individuals to send, save and spend funds for medical treatment and savings management.

Launched in 2010 to mark the 125^th years of Boehringer Ingelheim, MMH is a global social entrepreneurial initiative that seeks to support the health of people, their families and the social environment by identifying and supporting promising solutions to improve health systems globally.

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About Boehringer Ingelheim

Improving the health and quality of life of patients is the goal of the research-driven pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim. The focus in doing so is on diseases for which no satisfactory treatment option exists to date. The company therefore concentrates on developing innovative therapies that can extend patients’ lives. In animal health, Boehringer Ingelheim stands for advanced prevention.

Family-owned since it was established in 1885, Boehringer Ingelheim is one of the pharmaceutical industry’s top 20 companies. Some 50,000 employees create value through innovation daily for the three business areas human pharmaceuticals, animal health and biopharmaceuticals. In 2017, Boehringer Ingelheim achieved net sales of nearly 18.1 billion euros. R&D expenditure, exceeding three billion euros, corresponded to 17.0 per cent of net sales.

As a family-owned company, Boehringer Ingelheim plans in generations and focuses on long-term success, rather than short-term profit. The company therefore aims at organic growth from its own resources with simultaneous openness to partnerships and strategic alliances in research. In everything it does, Boehringer Ingelheim naturally adopts responsibility towards mankind and the environment.

More information about Boehringer Ingelheim can be found on www.boehringer-ingelheim.com or in our annual report: http://annualreport.boehringer-ingelheim.com.

About Making More Health

Making More Health (MMH) is a global initiative by the pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim in cooperation with Ashoka, a non-governmental organisation. Aiming to improve healthcare for people worldwide Making More Health pursues a multitude of approaches to find solutions and tailor these solutions to specific projects.

“By supporting and connecting social entrepreneurs in the healthcare industry, Boehringer Ingelheim seeks to have an impact on improving health beyond its core business. We do not want to limit ourselves to linear approaches to solutions. Indeed, since the initiative’s inception, we have focused on a multitude of issues and activities while supporting lateral thinking and networking. Making More Health also plays a very significant role within the company. We want to show our employees how important it is to be dedicated to social issues because it fosters new ways of thinking beyond traditional approaches,” explains Manuela Pastore, manager of Making More Health at Boehringer Ingelheim.

Boehringer Ingelheim employees can become involved in Making More Health in a variety of ways. With the MMH Executive in Residence Program, Boehringer Ingelheim employees go on location to support the projects of social entrepreneurs. The MMH Youth Venture Program supports the next generation in developing solutions for the healthcare industry, thereby encouraging social entrepreneurship and action.