PROMEDEO, a leading French startup, provides innovative supply chain services to accelerate the vaccination campaigns in low and middle income countries

In order to face the urgency of the Covid crisis, PROMEDEO, a French startup in the hospital supply chain arena and French Healthcare Association member, successfully launched – in less than 4 months – its digital platform for vaccine last mile delivery.

The solution implemented as early as January 2021 was built in close cooperation with the hospital medical community. Jean-Michel Dabadie – cofounder and CEO of PROMEDEO explains: “Our primary objective was to save time for the hospital pharmacists while bringing efficiency and compliance in the deployment of the vaccination campaign”.

The digital platform is a real success and is today operating in 14 regional hospitals as well as in ARS Hauts de France (Regional Health Authorities from north of France region). The platform has also been awarded with a national tender from UniHa, the leading Hospital Group Purchasing organization.

PROMEDEO has been identified as a major player in hospital medical supply chain by an international jury and several African countries have recently showed their interest for the digital platform.

PROMEDEO has recently entered into a partnership with UPS Foundation in order to accelerate the roll-out of the COVID 19 vaccination campaign in Cameroon from September 2022 onward.

In close cooperation with the Extended Program of Immunization (EPI) team of the Ministry of Health in Cameroon, it is a whole territory that will benefit from this innovation. Local teams from WHO, UNICEF and Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) are also involved in the project.

Current state

Context: Republic of Cameroon Total area: 475 442 km² Population: nearly 27 millions Specificities: Stock management of vaccines is very complex due to the configuration of the territory, with remote communities. A huge number of storage locations:  1 central stock, 10 regional stocks, 197 health districts, and more than 3000 vaccination points. Vaccination rate in August 2022: 6.8%

Target state

National deployment of the platform in less than a month, during summer 2022. Supply chain management made simple for healthcare users: doctors, pharmacists, nurses, and people for care centers. Full tracking of vaccines up until the point of use, global inventory visibility for authorities (Ministry of health). Compliant management of expiry dates specifically for frozen vaccines. Web-app available on mobile and in disconnected mode, allowing usage in low network coverage area.

Jean-Michel Dabadie was in Douala on August 12th for a presentation session with the Ministry of Health and his feedback is more than positive:” We had a warm welcome from the EPI team – the Ministry of health as well as from the UPS Foundation team ! Everyone was enthusiastic when discovering the platform and the appropriation of the tool was immediate. Not only did they appreciate the simplicity of use but they also acknowledged the reactivity of the PROMEDEO team when it came to make adjustments on the application in order to fit to the country specificities.

I recognize that this was possible for us, in the middle of summer, thanks to our flexible organization and a great availability of each of the actors. The project was launched in 3 months, in agile mode, in partnership with the UPS Foundation. Today, we are preparing to launch the service in other countries with similar issues and we will be happy to testify and share the first feedback at the French Healthcare Innovation & Business Forum on September 19 and 20, 2022.“

Overview of the solution: 

The PROMEDEO web-application provides advanced features on vaccine logistic traceability to ensure full compliance throughout the process: from the transportation of the products to the vaccination center. It is in a way “the software brick” that was missing to monitor vaccination campaigns.

Its advantages:

* Intuitive, easy to use,

* Evolutive: rapid adaptation to country specificities,

* Transmission and securing of information between hospitals and vaccination sites,

* Real-time monitoring of vaccine stocks throughout the country

Caption for the main picture  “Jean-Michel DABADIE CEO of PROMEDEO presenting the solution to the extended Program of Immunization (EPI) team of the Ministry of Health in Cameroon, Douala, August 2022”