AFRICA – Norvatis, a Swiss multinational pharmaceutical company has appointed Racey Muchilwa as the Head of Global Health in charge of the newly formed sub-Saharan Africa unit.
The Kenyan national with over 18 years sales and marketing experience in pharmaceutical industry will oversee the implementation of Norvatis’ new strategy that focuses on broadening patient reach in the region.
“I feel honored to lead our talented team in executing our new strategy. Our aspiration is to be the leading healthcare partner in sub-Saharan Africa and work with NGOs and governments to strengthen health systems,” says Racey Muchilwa, Head of Global Health SSA.
“We aim to harness the power of digital and new technologies, to maximize the impact we can have on the health of people in sub-Saharan Africa where the population is expected to double by 2050 to 2.2 billion.”
Prior to her appointment, Muchilwa was serving as the head of the African cluster that was recently upgraded into a fully-fledged unit of the pharmaceutical company.
Before joining Norvatis, Muchilwa had worked in various pharmaceutical companies in various sales and marketing roles.
She holds a Master of Business Administration degree in International Business Administration from the University of Nairobi and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Biochemistry and Zoology from Egerton University.
Her appointment came at a time when the pharmaceutical giant is launching a new strategy to broaden patient reach and availability of its portfolio of medicines in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).
The strategy also shifts organizational focus in SSA from financial metrics such as sales performance and profits, to metrics that drive access to innovative medicines and strengthen health systems in the region.
Novartis has a long-standing commitment to helping improve health of people in Africa and has contributed nearly 900 million courses of malaria treatment at no-profit to patients in malaria endemic countries, including more than 380 million doses of our pediatric formulation.
Novartis is also pioneering research and development with clinical trials, utilizing novel biologic molecules and deploying new technologies to provide the benefits of cutting-edge innovation to the region.
Most recently, the company announced a broad public-private partnership with the government of Ghana to tackle sickle cell disease, including access to available medicine, clinical research and use of digital technologies to achieve global standards of care.