Read the Conversation
Meeting highlights:
- Kiara Health’s priorities for 2024 are a continuous commitment to advancing African health as a 100% black-owned South African success story with a special focus on women’s space.
- Kiara Health’s portfolio includes cervical cancer, maternal care, STDs, TB, malaria, and HIV, and it provides diagnostic capacity and pandemic preparedness through strategic partnerships.
- Kiara Health is committed to education and awareness campaigns to support patients.
- Kiara Health is a partner of choice for Africa’s health ecosystem: contract manufacturing for other companies.
- Africa is an attractive investment market: it is growing rapidly, has increased infrastructure, and has untapped potential in healthcare.
- Skhumbuzo Ngozwana’s long-standing commitment to advocating for local manufacturing and positioning Africa on the global corporate map.
EF: What are your current priorities with Kiara Health?
SN: As we continue driving our vision to preserve, protect, and advance people's health across Africa, we remain committed to pushing innovations, particularly in women's health. We are addressing significant health challenges, such as through our portfolio on cervical cancer, which is a leading cause of death among women in our region. We are also exploring technologies for early breast cancer diagnosis using point-of-care and non-conventional imaging techniques.
On the manufacturing side, as we have discussed before, in addition to our products, we also engage in contract manufacturing for other companies. We recently signed an agreement with a leading multinational to produce their generic antiretroviral portfolio, including fixed-dose combination products. One of our top priorities is ensuring that our facility is fit for purpose, equipped with the right technologies, and staffed with an optimal workforce. Efficiency, cost competitiveness, and uncompromising quality are essential to our operations—quality is our calling card.
While our focus on quality and efficiency is always in the background, we strive to become a significant player in addressing global and public health priorities like HIV, TB, malaria, and STIs. Our work with the Pebble platform—developing tests for early and point-of-care diagnosis of malaria, gonorrhea, chlamydia, and other conditions—is central to our mission.
In addition, we are deeply committed to women's and maternal health through our Femtech portfolio. To recap, we have an HPV test that delivers results in just 10 minutes, an AI-enabled digital colposcope that allows even trained community healthcare workers to identify early cervical lesions, and MoodLight, which is a single-session point-of-care platform addressing cervical cancer threats within a 30-35 minute consultation.
We are pushing hard to implement these solutions, especially considering that it can take up to six months to receive test results in some countries. In some cases, it can take anywhere from 18 months to two years for a woman to undergo a colposcopy due to long queues and a shortage of healthcare professionals. And even after diagnosis, it might be another year before they receive the necessary surgical procedure. With our platform, however, we can significantly reduce these wait times by making life-saving technologies accessible across all countries in a much shorter period. This is a major priority for us.
We are also continuing to strengthen our partnerships. We are part of a consortium with several European partners, focusing on pandemic preparedness using the Pebble platform. We are exploring ways to scale this up to detect new and emerging threats, like M-pox, while also building the capability to quickly adapt and deploy tests at the point of care when the next pandemic arises. We have multiple initiatives underway.
EF: How are you adding value to patients beyond providing products?
SN: Our primary way of reaching patients is through the healthcare professionals we serve, ensuring they have access to continuing education and up-to-date information on medical conditions, treatments, and related topics. However, as a company, we also have a presence on various platforms like LinkedIn and Instagram. While we operate within the limitations of the marketing code, we use these platforms to educate patients and raise awareness on various health issues, such as strokes, heart attacks, or diabetes. We regularly run campaigns encouraging early diagnosis and providing information on what to look for.
Our main channel to reach patients is through the doctors we serve, but we also engage directly through other avenues. For example, we recently attended a function organized by patient advocacy groups USAID and others to discuss HIV prevention modalities, where we interacted with patient groups to introduce new developments like the tapering ring and explain how it works.
We are in a regulated industry, so while we aim to educate and inform as much as possible, we are limited by marketing regulations. We cannot engage in direct-to-consumer marketing as freely as in other regions. We have to abide by the marketing code.
EF: How is Kiara Health forging trust as a partner of choice?
SN: We have built strong relationships over time, which is due to our long history, solid reputation, and the chemistry we have established with our partners. Quality is key, and the caliber of our client base—working with companies like Cipla, Sanofi, Pfizer, and others—helps build confidence in what we do. We are certified by stringent regulators and have passed audits from various companies, which further reinforces our credibility. As they say, seeing is believing, so we always encourage potential partners to visit our facility, meet our team, and verify our capabilities firsthand.
EF: How have your geographical expansion plans progressed?
SN: There is still an opportunity for us to grow internationally. The past year has been challenging for the industry, so we have focused on South Africa. While regulatory processes and partnership discussions in places like Kenya are ongoing, the progress has been slower than anticipated. Expanding within the African continent has proven to be more complex than planned.
A streamlined regulatory system would make it easier for companies like ours to enter multiple markets simultaneously without significantly increasing registration costs. We hope that as the African Medicines Agency (AMA) becomes more established, these processes will be streamlined, allowing us to overcome these hurdles and expand more efficiently across the continent.
EF: Why is a dollar in Africa a smart investment in health? What factors make Africa an attractive destination for future health investments?
SN: If you look at global growth rates in the healthcare industry, they are generally in the single digits. However, across many African markets, we see growth rates ranging from 12% to 20%. Investing in Africa guarantees growth.
Secondly, health in Africa is one of the most untapped potential areas, and we're starting to see significant expansion. I appreciate how you mentioned that 'the first wealth is health.' On the continent, governments are realizing that health is not just an expense but a crucial investment and a significant driver of economic activity. We are witnessing substantial reforms in how healthcare is financed, with the introduction of social, community, or national health insurance in several countries. Companies are also stepping up to meet their employees' healthcare needs.
Moreover, the reliance on foreign aid is diminishing, and there is a growing investment in healthcare infrastructure—new laboratories, hospitals, clinics, private and public. This commitment to increasing resources and training more healthcare professionals sets up the sector for further growth.
There is also a significant shift in health challenges from infectious diseases to chronic, non-communicable diseases (NCDs), which require lifelong care. For investors, this presents a stable, long-term opportunity. Growth is virtually assured with the right partners and a willingness to invest.
Additionally, organizations like the Africa CDC are heavily focused on developing the pharmaceutical industry, viewing it as a form of 'second independence' for the continent. Initiatives like the African Vaccine Manufacturing Accelerator and the African procurement mechanism demonstrate a market poised for secure, significant growth.
Finally, consider the population dynamics: by 2050, Africa is projected to be the most populous continent with the largest working-age population. This demographic shift will drive economic development, making it an attractive destination for investment. The days of 'poor, low-growth Africa' are behind us—there is a strong case for investing here now.
EF: What milestones are you most proud of, and what do you look forward to for the future of care health? What would you like to celebrate on your 10th anniversary?
SN: On a personal level, I have been in this industry for 28 years, starting with Cipla, and for the past 15 years, I have been a strong advocate for local manufacturing in Africa. In 2011, I had the privilege of writing the Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Plan for Africa for the African Union Commission in collaboration with UNIDO. That is something I am very proud of, along with the work I have done with WHO in Ethiopia and elsewhere.
The real satisfaction comes from attending conferences and meetings and seeing how the conversation around local production has evolved. When we started advocating for this, people would laugh at the idea—there was a lot of skepticism and outright dismissal. The notion that Africa could manufacture pharmaceuticals was considered unrealistic. But now, it is a well-established concept, and no one questions our ability to adhere to quality standards. That shift in perception is a significant source of personal satisfaction. The debate has become entrenched, and people understand that it is not just about buying the cheapest product—it is about health security and pandemic preparedness, something we have been championing for over a decade.
On the company side, since starting Kiara in 2016, we have made significant strides in just a few years. We have secured exclusive partnerships with companies from the US, Europe, South Korea, India, and Israel. The acquisition of the Novartis plant stands out as a major milestone. Watching the company grow from its early stages to where it is now—taking baby steps, walking, and perhaps even running—has been deeply satisfying. Of course, we have faced challenges and growing pains, and there will be more to come, but seeing the dream come to fruition has been incredibly rewarding.
