With mClinica’s Technology, the Philippines Becomes First Country in Asia to Digitize Pharmacies Nationwide

In collaboration with the Food and Drug Administration of the Philippines (FDA), mClinica introduced a new mobile app, Electronic Logbook, to digitize prescriptions using cutting edge image recognition and machine learning. mClinica, which was founded by Endeavor Entrepreneur Farouk Meralli, donated the platform to the FDA, making the Philippines the first country in Asia to use a nationwide mobile app to disrupt the pharmacy prescription process.

Typically, pharmacists in the Philippines have lost valuable time with patients filling out handwritten paper logbooks to comply with local laws requiring them to document prescriptions — a challenge also felt by the FDA, which monitors more than 10,000 active pharmacies spread across 7,000 islands. The Electronic Logbook targets this problem directly, with widespread benefits for patients, pharmacists and government agencies.  

Just how effective is the new platform? The Electronic Logbook found that 1 in every 3 patients buy fewer antibiotic pills than the number prescribed. Taking less than the recommended number of pills leads to antimicrobial resistance. This is a deadly condition that makes medicines stop working. Fresh insights like these equip governments better to target and treat public health problems.

A milestone for the Philippine public health sector, the Electronic Logbook is poised to rapidly generate life-saving global health data by monitoring prescription drug use in real-time, recalling dangerous drugs, and reducing counterfeits and expired medicine.

Farouk was selected as an Endeavor Entrepreneur in September 2016 at the 66th International Selection Panel in Boston, Mass. mClinica has since successfully raised a $6.3 million Series A round, in which Endeavor Catalyst participated.

Endeavor Philippines staff with Endeavor Entrepreneur and mClinica Founder Farouk Meralli at the September 2016 International Selection Panel in Boston where he joined the Endeavor network.

With operations in the Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia and Vietnam, mClinica has developed mobile technology to unite pharmacies on a common platform, provide access to new sources of data, and allow for the deployment of data-driven programs that improve patient affordability and health outcomes. Since raising its seed round in 2014, the company has connected thousands of pharmacies across Southeast Asia, providing consolidated access to millions of patients and billions of data points.

Read more about the new technology and its use here.