Orange Kenya launches a medicine authentication service

On October 12 this year, Orange Kenya launched its latest innovation in the field of e-health, in partnership with mPedigree.
mPedigree is an NGO based in Ghana that develops pan-African partnerships with telecommunication operators, pharmaceutical industries and IT companies with a view to deploying solutions to combat counterfeit medicines.
Established in Kenya, it allows patients and medical personnel to check the authenticity of medicines by SMS in a country where the rate of counterfeit medicines can reach 50% of Internet sales and directly or indirectly cause the death of many patients.

an innovative and free service for the user
Users simply send an SMS containing the 12-figure code concealed in a scratch-away area on the medicine box. In return, they receive the reply "OK, genuine medecine" or "NO, code is not a valid code" accompanied by the laboratory’s telephone number to report the fraud.
Completely free for end users, the cost of the SMS is covered by the pharmaceutical laboratories.

a solution that Kenya had been waiting for
This service has been launched at a time when the country is engaged in a health policy aimed at fighting organized crime. Since criminals are constantly inventing new forms of attack, it is essential to keep innovating, which is what new technologies allow. For Orange Healthcare, this is a landmark launch in the development of the e-health offering. The African market is very promising, particularly for mobile healthcare such as medical monitoring by SMS or telemedicine.

Orange Healthcare, serving health with new Orange technologies
Over the past 10 years, Orange has gained a significant amount of experience in the field of health, strengthened in late 2007 by the creation of Orange Healthcare, its new Health division. Building on its position as an integrated operator, Orange has all the technological know-how needed to create synergies and propose a shared vision of the health system. Orange offers services to health, telehealth, prevention and wellness professionals, allowing information to be accessed and transmitted securely. Orange Healthcare thus contributes to building a more effective healthcare system.


find out more
Orange and health
Orange Kenya portal
the mPedigree website