Meet GES Delegate: Saima Khakwani
Saima Khakwani
Co-Founder and CEO
Twitter Handle: @saima_shivji and @enovatRx
Organisation Name: enovatRx
Organisation Website: www.enovatRx.com
Country of Origin: Pakistan
About enovatRx:
e-novatRx (e: Digital, novat: Innovative, Rx: medical Prescription) was conceived by one of the Co-Founders, Dr. Asher Hasan in 2014. The enovatRx team consists of two healthcare professionals (a doctor and a nurse), and a Customer Service/User Experience expert.
e-novatRx is Pakistan’s first e-PBM (Pharmacy Benefit Management) solution. It provides health consumers with access to high-quality medicines at pre-discounted prices at a nationwide network of mPOS-enabled retail pharmacies via a digital payment, digital health e-smart card which can optionally be linked to the National ID database (to create a health e-passport).
e-novatRx negotiates volume discounts with both retail pharmacies and pharmaceutical manufacturers. It promotes continuity of care for health consumers by linking their e-novatRx smart card to a mobile-app enabled digital prescription that is coupled to an. Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system.
Our Inspiration
As healthcare innovators and service providers, the team of enovatRx is committed to provide the people of Pakistan access to affordable, quality healthcare. The idea was incubated based on this thought: “why not introduce a digital health innovation in Pakistan that will transform the way healthcare is accessed and financed while also having an opportunity to run a sustainable, scalable social business that can be replicated across emerging markets?” And we haven’t looked back since then!
Our next big goal
e-novatRx currently has a B2B focus on health consumers connected to corporate value chains in Pakistan including corporate employees, SME suppliers, small-holder farmers, distributors, SME retailers, micro-retailers, micro-entrepreneurs and informal domestic workers. This model will soon be replicated in Mexico & Chile.
Biggest Obstacle
Nothing in this world prepares you to be an entrepreneur — especially if you’ve started off as healthcare workers. Two of the co-founders at enovatRx are from the hard sciences’ background and it sure did hit us hard! Navigating through business models and personally not having a lot of experience with business, made making decisions more and more difficult each day. Gradually we learned what NOT to do and have thus made it this far. I think it’ll be fair to say it requires a lot of patience, mentorship and the ability to accept failures, to make it happen.
Advice to emerging entrepreneurs: LEARN FROM YOUR MISTAKES!
Being an entrepreneur is rewarding and yet, very challenging. Don’t lose hope and DON’T GIVE UP! Be patient and it’ll happen. Also, never say never. Give it your best shot and work as a team — take lessons from all the group projects that you’ve done in school. Accept mentorship from people who’re more experienced than you. Funding should not be a priority if you really want to bring a change. And, if you fail 999 times, you’ve also learnt 999 new ways to do something — keep pushing yourself to be better.
