pharmacists do not change patients’ prescriptions.
“ When we receive a prescription we review and call back the physicians. We tell them when clients complain about side effects from the prescribed medicine. If the physicians provides an alternative drug, we change but if the physicians insist on the same medicine, we do not change the prescription,” said Mr Machogu.
Mr Machogu urged the government and stakeholders in healthcare to conduct public awareness campaigns to educate masses on proper use of medicine. Counterfeit medicine, he said, raise cost of medication trough ineffectiveness in disease treatment and prolonged use. He also urged physicians to stop prescribing medicine by generic names only saying counterfeiters use commonly prescribed generic names to brand fake medicine.
The pharmacy chain stocks one innovator brand and two generics of medicine. Each type of medicine has a batch number traceable to specific suppliers to protect“ integrity of drugs.” Halton customers can verify authenticity of medicine sold to them through a SMS code service.
Haltons inception was predicated on Equity Bank’ s business model that broke barriers to financial services access in Kenya. Haltons founder says that the chain pharmacy wants to become the“ Equity bank of pharmacy world” by breaking barriers to accessing quality health care.
Doctors Louis Machogu, Edwine Barasa, Francis Mwaniki and David Ndambuki initiated Haltons limited then known as Haltons Pharma. They each invested Sh 500,000 in the business opening the first pharmacy at Koinange Street, Nairobi.
However, Halton’ s growth has been fraught with challenges. In 2013, six years into operation, the company closed three outlets due to cash flow demands. Fanisi Capital, an investment firm, funded Haltons to continue expanding, becoming a shareholder in the business.
Louis however says Fanisi Capital will exit the community pharmacy chain after recouping the capital it injected into the business. He however did not specify when the investment firm would exit.
Haltons Staff
18 November-December 2016