Across Africa, where many communities lack access to nearby clinics and the continent faces a shortage of two to four million health workers, an underutilized asset in global primary healthcare delivery is stepping up: the neighborhood pharmacy. 

On October 14, the Alliance organized a panel at the Africa HealthTech Summit in Kigali, Strengthening Primary Care Access: AI and Pharmacies, as part of its 2025 AI and Global Health Discussion Series, sponsored by Pfizer. The session brought together experts from Chan Zuckerberg (CZ) Biohub, Goodlife, The Global Fund, and the Society for Family Health (SFH) Rwanda to explore how artificial intelligence (AI) could help pharmacies fill critical gaps in Africa’s primary healthcare systems — not by replacing clinics or health workers, but by extending their reach.

Together, the panel painted a picture of a hybrid system where clinics, community health workers, and pharmacies work hand in hand — supported by AI and digital tools that make care more accessible, efficient, and data-driven.

“The unfortunate news is that Africa is never going to have enough doctors for the population,” said Josh Ruxin, co-founder of Goodlife Health and Beauty, who moderated the panel. “However, there is a tremendous opportunity for progress…pharmacies have always been in communities and have been the first point of care.”

The convergence of artificial or “augmented” intelligence (AI) and global health presents an unprecedented opportunity to transform this landscape. “This opportunity to bring in AI — with algorithms and new diagnostics — can tremendously improve the quality of primary healthcare and help leapfrog many of these challenges, enabling people across the continent to live happier, healthier, and longer lives,” continued Ruxin.

As traditional healthcare funding models face increasing constraints, AI-powered tools offer a pathway to dramatically enhance the capabilities of existing pharmacy networks without requiring massive new infrastructure investments.

“This opportunity to bring in AI — with algorithms and new diagnostics — can tremendously improve the quality of primary healthcare and help leapfrog many of these challenges, enabling people across the continent to live happier, healthier, and longer lives.” – Josh Ruxin, Co-Founder, Goodlife Health and Beauty

 

Key Takeaways

• AI can transform pharmacies into frontline primary care hubs, extending clinic reach, strengthening health systems, and expanding access to care for communities.
• Public-private-community partnership, local leadership, and supportive policies are essential for sustainable impact.
• Digitization and technology can help increase transparency, cost efficiency, and predictive planning — pharmacies can be redefined not just as dispensaries, but data-driven centers for diagnostics and prevention.
• Continuous learning and adaptation from different contexts can allow pharmacies to evolve, scale, and further improve access to care.

 

Strengthening Mixed Health Systems with Pharmacies

In Africa, pharmacies already serve as vital points of contact for communities, yet most operate outside formal health systems, limited by diagnostic capacity, fragmented supply chains, and inconsistent oversight.

Aditi Srinivasan, portfolio manager for private sector, digital systems, and emerging technologies at The Global Fund, highlighted the importance of mixed health systems, pointing to the complementary role pharmacies can play alongside public systems.

“Public systems are effective for specific health outcomes and populations, but they cannot provide all services at all times,” Srinivasan said, noting that resource constraints and prioritization can often lead to gaps in care.

She shared that from the Global Fund’s perspective, private pharmacies can help fill these gaps by ensuring that the best quality products are available at the right place and time. “We recognize that the private sector is an integral part of surveillance, tracking consumption patterns, and tailoring services for the populations we serve,” she added. 

Srinivasan also underscored the importance of supportive policies and partnerships. “[Policies] are key to our supply chain transformation agendas with governments, particularly in Rwanda, where we’ve seen success in attracting services to pharmacies.”

 

AI & Digitization’s Role in Transforming Community Health

“You need the right information, at the right time, in the right place — and this is where AI can play a critical role…Out of the 350 facilities we operate in Rwanda, we’ve digitized over 126. I was pleasantly surprised to see that applying AI and digitization allowed us to save up to 80% of operational costs.” — Manasseh Wandera, Executive Director, SFH Rwanda

The convergence of AI and digital health offers a powerful way to connect and strengthen these fragmented systems. Machine-learning algorithms can forecast medicine shortages, flag errors, and even support pharmacists in diagnosing and counseling patients — helping both pharmacies and clinics serve patients more effectively.

Manasseh Wandera, executive director of the Society for Family Health Rwanda, leads one of Africa’s largest community health programs, delivering behavior change campaigns and millions of health products across Rwanda, South Sudan, and parts of Central Africa. He described the challenges SFH Rwanda faced in South Sudan, where limited staff and resources often left people arriving at clinics disappointed to find pharmacies not yet stocked.

“The common theme we see is that a facility or community, no matter what you do, becomes completely ineffective without easy access to medicines…a well stocked pharmacy is a critical piece,” Wandera said.

Digitization presents an opportunity to change the economics of care. AI systems can help track stock levels, predict demand, and manage expirations, supporting clinics and pharmacies working in tandem to ensure that essential medicines are available when needed.

“Out of the 350 facilities we operate in Rwanda, we’ve digitized over 126. I was pleasantly surprised to see that applying AI and digitization allowed us to save up to 80% of operational costs,” Wandera explained.

Joe DeRisi, president of CZ Biohub San Francisco and a pioneer in genomic diagnostics, described how technology is now catching up to the needs of the last mile and helping to improve the quality of healthcare delivery at the pharmacy window. 

“Technology can improve lives, enhance outcomes, and reduce errors. The more we can focus on [the pharmacy] entry point in an accurate, error-free way, the faster and more efficiently healthcare can be delivered — at lower cost,” DeRisi said.

He expressed excitement about improved diagnostics through systems that operate without relying on the cloud. “It’s superintelligence, and the diagnostics we currently have can be made better…the inference can be done on-site, internet or not,” DeRisi added.

“I believe technology can improve lives, enhance outcomes, and reduce errors. From my experience, the pharmacy is often the first point of care, and the more we can focus on that entry point in an accurate, error-free way, the faster and more efficiently healthcare can be delivered — at lower cost.” Joe DeRisi, President, CZ Biohub SF

 

Sustainable Financing Models & Public-Private Partnerships

Pharmacies already exist in nearly every community, operate efficiently, and are motivated by customer service and volume, making them natural partners in expanding access at lower cost. However, new innovative financing and partnership approaches are needed to help sustain primary healthcare facilities and empower local pharmacy entrepreneurs to deliver quality, affordable services in low-resource and remote communities. 

“No single entity, no single person can do this alone,” Wandera said, emphasizing the importance of public-private-community partnerships. “Sustainable and profitable healthcare delivery requires the government, private sector, civil society, and communities working together.”

Highlighting a 15-year partnership SFH Rwanda established with the Rwandan government, Wandera explained how they created “nurse entrepreneurial units” where nurses at health posts act as CEOs. “Over 75% of our 350 units are profitable. With government guidance and SFH support in training and oversight, everyone benefits,” he shared.

Wandera also noted that targeted capacity building and AI can help reduce over-prescription, especially of antibiotics. “When we saw over-prescription, we trained nurse entrepreneurs on correct practices and showed them that malpractice harms their own business. AI then makes the system faster and cheaper — correct billing and prescriptions ensure nurses earn a fair profit, patients get the right treatment, and real-time data provides transparency and supports decision-making.”

“No single entity, no single person can do this alone. Sustainable and profitable healthcare delivery requires the government, private sector, civil society, and communities working together.” — Manasseh Wandera, Executive Director, SFH Rwanda

Also exploring new financing and partnership models, the Global Fund is expanding beyond traditional government-centered programs to partner directly with pharmacists, nurses, and community health workers. “Our job is to create market ecosystems, but with the government,” Srinivasan explained.

With this model, they had three objectives: public health outcomes such as prescription behaviors, tracking product flow, and providing augmented services to inform public systems about population health dynamics. 

“We have worked with pharmacy providers, aligning them with governance structures and helping them understand service delivery costing models—particularly outcomes-based financing—to set up programs and establish programmatic engagement,” Srinivasan shared.

She noted that outcomes-based financing with governments and pharmacy chains has been one of the most successful models in Rwanda, Uganda, and South Africa.

 

The Vision: Pharmacies as Primary Care Hubs

DeRisi shared his optimism on how emerging technology can support pharmacists with diagnostics and early intervention, highlighting how new innovations can automatically provide insights into patient health that may otherwise be missed. DeRisi’s team is piloting a new AI-assisted diagnostic tool known as the Remoscope, which can detect malaria and other infections on a single platform. 

“Because results are automatically digitized and AI-driven, they’re transferred to dashboards and shared transparently. This can even provide a real-time map of different Plasmodium species enabling better distribution of medicines,” shared DeRisi.

In thinking about how governments can meaningfully integrate pharmacies into national health systems as formal primary healthcare delivery hubs, Wandera emphasized the importance of centering the communities being served, learning and adapting while scaling, and utilizing AI tools to take and apply lessons from different contexts. 

“Listen to the people and engage the communities, the chiefs at the local level, and the officials in the Ministry of Health. You also don’t need to wait for all the data to act — see what works and just do it. Start small, learn from your mistakes, and scale. When errors happen, you correct them and move forward,” he said.

The vision is clear: pharmacies can become vital extensions of primary care networks, with AI-enabled tools providing diagnostic support, preventive care, and real-time data to drive more efficient decision-making. By leveraging AI and digital technologies, pharmacies can help bridge fragmented health systems and bring care closer to the people who need it most.

 

Check out the previous convenings in our 2024 AI and Global Health Discussion Series, and our other work shaping AI and global health here. With thanks to Pfizer for sponsoring the 2025 AI and Global Health Discussion Series.

Photos courtesy of AHTS and Dala Group Africa.

 

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Bios

Joe DeRisi, President Emeritus, Chan Zuckerberg Biohub San Francisco

Dr. Joe DeRisi is President Emeritus at Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, San Francisco and Professor, Biochemistry and Biophysics Howard Hughes Investigator at UCSF. Joe’s work combines genomics, bioinformatics, biochemistry, and bioengineering to study infectious (viral, fungal, amoebic, and parasitic) and non-infectious (autoimmune) diseases in a wide range of species. His patient based research has focused on the use of metagenomics to diagnose difficult to detect pathogens. He is a co-Founder of Delve Bio, providing metagenomic diagnostics to hospitals throughout the United States. He is a member of the National Academy of Science, the National Academy of Medicine, and the National Academy of Arts and Sciences, and was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2004 as one of the pioneers of DNA microarray technology and whole-genome expression profiling. Over the past two decades, his work has increased the power, versatility, and clinical utility of metagenomic tools, laying the groundwork for pathogen surveillance and diagnostics in low- and middle- income countries worldwide.

 

Josh Ruxin, Co-Founder, Goodlife Health and Beauty

Josh Ruxin is the Co-Founder of Goodlife Health and Beauty. He is an American businessman, academic, and writer. He founded The Access Project and Health Builders, two NGOs focused on primary health care and pharmacy in Rwanda. Together with his wife, he also established Heaven and The Retreat in Kigali. Ruxin was the Truman Scholar for Connecticut in 1990, a Fulbright Scholar to Bolivia in 1992, and a Marshall Scholar in 1994. He previously served as Assistant Clinical Professor of Public Health at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.

 

Aditi Srinivasan, Portfolio Manager, Private Sector, Digital Systems and Emerging Technologies, The Global Fund

Aditi Srinivasan is a strategy and investment specialist with expertise in public–private health investments, market intelligence, and product operations across Africa and Asia. As Portfolio Manager for Digital Systems & Emerging Technologies at The Global Fund, Aditi leads initiatives to leverage private capital and expertise to design, scale, and embed emerging technologies in low- and middle-income countries. Aditi has built sustainable commercialization models for diagnostics and digital health tools to bring innovations to market—particularly through pharmacy networks, occupational health, and e-commerce platforms. 

 

Manasseh G. Wandera, Executive Director, Society for Family Health Rwanda (SFH)

Manasseh G. Wandera is the Executive Director of the Society for Family Health Rwanda (SFH), the largest national non-profit health organization operating in all 30 districts of Rwanda. Since 2012, he has led SFH’s growth in scope, partnerships, and health impact, advancing Universal Health Coverage through primary healthcare, social marketing, behavior change communication, and public health innovations. Under his leadership, SFH has partnered with government, UN agencies, donors, and NGOs to strengthen health systems, build over 300 health posts, support 90 health centers, and train more than 1,000 Community Health Workers—working towards a vision of 1,000 facilities in Rwanda and 100,000 across Africa. Mr. Wandera holds an MBA from Maastricht School of Management and advanced degrees in development studies and public administration. He lives in Kigali with his wife and four children.