What You Should Know:

你应该知道的：

– The

– 这

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

比尔及梅琳达·盖茨基金会

has awarded a $5M grant to

已授予一笔500万美元的拨款给

Axmed

艾哈迈德

, a healthcare technology company focused on transforming how lifesaving medicines are procured across Growth Markets.

，一家专注于改变救命药物在增长市场采购方式的医疗技术公司。

– The grant, announced on May 21, 2025, during a high-level roundtable alongside the 78th World Health Assembly, will be deployed as a matching fund to enhance the procurement of maternal, newborn, and child health (MNCH) commodities in Sub-Saharan Africa through Axmed’s innovative platform.

– 该笔拨款于2025年5月21日在第78届世界卫生大会期间的高层圆桌会议上宣布，将作为匹配基金通过Axmed的创新平台，用于加强撒哈拉以南非洲地区孕产妇、新生儿和儿童健康（MNCH）物资的采购。

– This initiative is expected to unlock up to $10M in MNCH procurement across selected African countries. It aims to strengthen national procurement capacities by offering Ministries of Health near-term liquidity, access to quality-assured MNCH commodities, and the benefits of pooled procurement and aggregated demand, ultimately driving cost-efficiency and supply security..

——该倡议预计将在选定的非洲国家释放高达1000万美元的孕产妇、新生儿和儿童健康（MNCH）采购资金。其目标是通过为卫生部提供短期流动性、获得质量有保障的MNCH商品以及集中采购和需求汇总的优势，加强各国的采购能力，最终提升成本效益和供应安全性。

Addressing Critical Gaps in Maternal and Child Health

解决母婴健康领域的关键差距

The grant comes as part of a global health movement to expand affordable access to high-quality medicines, particularly for vulnerable populations. Annually, 287,000 women die from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth, and 2.3 million newborns die within their first month, despite the existence of proven, cost-effective interventions.

这项资助是全球健康运动的一部分，目的是扩大负担得起的高质量药品的获取渠道，特别是针对弱势群体。尽管存在已被证明具有成本效益的干预措施，但每年仍有287,000名妇女死于与怀孕和分娩相关的并发症，230万名新生儿在出生后第一个月内死亡。

Weak procurement systems, constrained budgets, and fragmented supply chains persistently limit access to essential MNCH commodities in low-resource settings..

薄弱的采购系统、受限的预算和分散的供应链持续限制了低资源环境中获取基本的母婴和儿童健康商品的机会。

“Reducing the number of preventable deaths of mothers and babies is key to our work in sub-Saharan Africa,” said Cynthia Mwase, Director of Health, Africa, at the Gates Foundation.

“减少母亲和婴儿可预防的死亡人数是我们撒哈拉以南非洲工作的关键，”盖茨基金会非洲健康部主任辛西娅·姆瓦塞表示。

“This partnership with Axmed and local health leaders is an important step forward in ensuring that life-saving innovations reach the communities where they can make the greatest difference – so that more families can experience healthy pregnancies, safe births, and strong starts to life”.

“与阿克斯梅德和当地卫生领袖的这种伙伴关系是在确保挽救生命的创新到达能产生最大影响的社区方面迈出的重要一步——这样更多家庭就能经历健康的怀孕、安全的分娩和强有力的生命起点。”

Strengthening National Procurement Amidst Funding Challenges

加强国家采购以应对资金挑战

The current global liquidity crunch, along with reductions in donor funding, has further challenged governments in securing necessary medicines. This grant directly responds to this issue by unlocking immediate financing while simultaneously enabling longer-term procurement reforms. The roundtable where the initiative was announced convened Ministers of Health, national procurement leads, and representatives from key multilateral organizations and philanthropic partners, highlighting a collaborative approach..

当前的全球流动性紧缩以及捐助资金的减少，进一步挑战了各国政府获取必要药品的能力。这项资助直接应对了这一问题，在释放即时融资的同时，还推动了长期采购改革。宣布该倡议的圆桌会议召集了卫生部长、国家采购负责人以及来自关键多边组织和慈善合作伙伴的代表，突显了合作的方式。

The Government of Rwanda has already experienced success with the Axmed platform. Dr. Loko Abraham, Chief Executive Officer for Rwanda Medical Supply, stated, “Through our partnership with Axmed, the Government of Rwanda has shown that meaningful improvements in the efficient and sustainable delivery of high-quality medicines across multiple therapeutic areas can be achieved.

卢旺达政府已经在Axmed平台上取得了成功。卢旺达医药供应公司首席执行官洛科·亚伯拉罕博士表示：“通过与Axmed的合作，卢旺达政府已经证明，在多个治疗领域实现高效、可持续的高质量药品交付方面可以取得显著改善。”

Now, through this matching fund, our partnership will expand this impact even further, reaching the most vulnerable with urgency and precision. This matching fund is a strategic step forward in reimagining procurement in a new era of global health: smarter, faster, and designed to deliver measurable results across the entire health system in collaboration with partners who are both innovative and purpose-driven”..

现在，通过这项匹配基金，我们的合作伙伴关系将进一步扩大这一影响，以紧迫和精准的方式触及最脆弱的群体。这项匹配基金是在全球健康新时代重新构想采购的战略性一步：更智能、更快速，并且旨在与富有创新精神和目标驱动的合作伙伴携手，在整个健康系统中实现可衡量的成果。

Axmed’s Platform: Unlocking Scale, Speed, and Savings

艾哈迈德的平台：释放规模、速度和节约

Axmed’s digital marketplace plays a crucial role by connecting institutional buyers directly with vetted suppliers, aggregating demand across countries, and consolidating procurement at scale. In 2024, Ministries and other procurers using the platform achieved average savings of 20–30%, with cost reductions for select MNCH products reaching up to 80%..

Axmed的数字市场通过将机构买家与经过审核的供应商直接联系起来，整合跨国需求并大规模集中采购，发挥了至关重要的作用。2024年，使用该平台的各部委及其他采购方实现了平均20%-30%的成本节约，部分MNCH产品的成本降幅高达80%。

Beyond procurement, Axmed also partners with global logistics providers to manage end-to-end delivery, from the manufacturer to last-mile distribution, ensuring full tracking and traceability. The platform has been deployed across multiple low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) to support national and regional procurement strategies..

除了采购之外，Axmed还与全球物流供应商合作，管理从制造商到最后一公里配送的端到端交付，确保全程追踪和可追溯性。该平台已部署在多个低收入和中等收入国家（LMICs），以支持国家和区域采购战略。

“This fund is a clear example of how catalytic financing and technology can work together to deliver immediate and lasting impact,” said Emmanuel Akpakwu, Founder & CEO of Axmed. “Our goal is not just to deliver quality medicines faster and more affordably, but to help build more resilient and efficient procurement systems for the future”..

“该基金是一个明确的例子，展示了催化融资和技术如何共同发挥作用以产生直接且持久的影响，”Axmed创始人兼首席执行官埃马纽埃尔·阿克帕库武表示。“我们的目标不仅是更快、更实惠地提供高质量药物，而且是帮助构建更具韧性和效率的未来采购系统。”