Making Every Pharmacy Count: How Afya Intelligence Is Transforming Health Supply Chains in East Africa

By connecting private pharmacies to a shared digital platform, Tanzania-based Afya Intelligence is helping pharmacy operators and health-sector partners better understand medicine demand, stock levels and purchasing patterns at the point of sale, supporting more informed procurement, inventory and supply-planning decisions. A stronger IP strategy is underpinning the company’s regional expansion.

Across Tanzania, community pharmacies and accredited drug dispensing outlets are often among the first points of care for patients seeking medicines and health advice. These regulated retail outlets that help provide essential medicines in underserved areas play an important role in the country’s health system. However, many have yet to be fully integrated into the broader healthcare ecosystem. Paper-based operations and fragmented purchasing mean that information on medicine demand, stock levels and patient needs often does not reach manufacturers, public authorities or financing partners.

Harrison Mariki, founder and CEO of Afya Intelligence, witnessed this gap during more than 15 years of work in health supply chains. He explained:

In Tanzania, up to 70 percent of patients seek care first at a private pharmacy, yet those pharmacies are invisible to the health system.

Harrison Mariki, founder and CEO of Afya Intelligence

Mariki founded the company to address this disconnect and, in the company’s words, to “make every pharmacy count.”

Connecting pharmacies with the health ecosystem

Afya Intelligence operates two complementary products through a shared health market intelligence platform. Dukadawa, a name derived from the Swahili words duka (shop) and dawa (medicine), is a digital operating system that helps private pharmacies manage ordering, stock, credit and transactions. Afyalytics converts this information into decision intelligence for governments, donors, health facilities and other partners. Together, the two technologies help pharmacies operate more effectively while giving health-sector stakeholders greater visibility into medicine availability and local demand.

The company currently earns revenue through pharmacy software subscriptions as well as public sector and donor contracts. It is also developing a supplier marketplace, working capital services and market intelligence products for manufacturers.

Turning transactions into actionable intelligence

Afya Intelligence’s competitive advantage lies not only in digitizing pharmacies but also in the data generated through their daily operations. While many platforms focus on public-sector dashboards, pharmacy software or global datasets, Afya Intelligence brings these elements together around private pharmacies in East Africa.

According to Mariki, the company’s platforms support medicine access for more than 100,000 patients each month across more than 8,000 public and 100 private pharmacy outlets. Afya Intelligence estimates that its activities have reached more than 3.4 million people, while its data has also supported human papillomavirus (HPV) monitoring programs reaching approximately five million girls.

Building an IP strategy for growth

As the company prepared to scale, it recognized that its IP strategy needed to evolve alongside its technology and partnerships.

Afya Intelligence’s key intangible assets include its pharmacy operating system, analytics platform, brands and proprietary data, among others. The challenge was to protect these assets while ensuring that the technology could continue reaching pharmacies and patients.

To address this, Afya Intelligence established a formal IP strategy linked to its data assets, pursued trademark protection for Afya Intelligence, Afyalytics and Dukadawa, and clarified data ownership and licensing provisions in public-sector and manufacturer contracts. These steps also strengthened the company’s position in discussions with investors and partners.

As a startup, we have to balance growth with the discipline to protect what we build. Securing IP isn't a wall; it is what will keep us sustainable while still being trusted.

Harrison Mariki, founder and CEO of Afya Intelligence

Scaling across East Africa

Afya Intelligence currently operates in 16 of Tanzania’s 31 regions and plans to digitize operations across 1,000 pharmacies nationwide through Dukadawa within the next two years. Building on this momentum, the company plans to begin its regional expansion in Kenya. Afya Intelligence’s growth comes as pharmacies increasingly adopt digital systems, governments seek better last-mile visibility and financial institutions request transaction data before extending credit.

Over the next 18 to 36 months, Afya Intelligence plans to activate additional marketplace and manufacturer intelligence services while preparing for the next stage of financing. Its IP priorities include securing trademarks in new markets, protecting its data platform and analytics methods and establishing clear data rights and licensing terms with manufacturers and financiers.

Afya Intelligence’s journey demonstrates that IP in digital health extends well beyond patents. The strategic use of IP rights to protect brands and software, complemented by contractual arrangements governing data and commercial relationships, can provide a foundation for sustainable growth and help ensure that every pharmacy, and indeed every transaction, counts.