Morningside Pharmaceuticals has paid for an online system to help the Inter Care charity track the recycled medicines and healthcare products it sends to rural health units in the poorest parts of Africa.
Inter Care, which is based in Syston, sends high quality items such as dressings and instruments which would otherwise be incinerated.
It supports about 130 health units in six African countries, which collectively serve more than 11 million people.
Morningside chief executive Dr Nik Kotecha said: “By supporting Inter Care with this new IT system, we are helping them to provide lifesaving medicines to deprived countries which need it the most.
“Inter Care do great work in developing countries and Morningside are delighted that they are able to help enhance Inter Care’s quality management system.”
Morningside is a major wholesaler and exporter of branded and generic medicines and healthcare products, with experience of exporting to more than 90 countries.
As well as supplying the public and private sector, the business, located on the Castle Business Park, Loughborough, has been supporting global aid efforts for more than two decades.
Last year, it won a £1.2 million Unicef contract to supply medicines for emergency aid projects in the Middle East as well as Haiti and Liberia.
Around 20 per cent of its annual turnover – accounting for around £10 million – comes from providing overseas aid.
Closer to home, Morningside supplies clients including the NHS and the retail pharmacy sector.
This will be the first electronic stock control system Inter Care has had since it was set up in 1974, and means the charity can track aid it sends to Africa from the point it enters its warehouse, right through to delivery to each health unit.
Inter Care general manager Diane Hardy said as a charity which places recycling at the core of its work, the new system will also help its own in-house recycling by replacing paper record-keeping with digital records.
Less paperwork also means more space to store donated medical aid and less time spent looking through files, which will now be accessible at the click of a mouse.
She said: “Thanks to Morningside, Inter Care now has a highly professional and efficient stock control system, putting us at the top of our game for a charity of our size.
“Morningside’s mission is to make quality healthcare an affordable and accessible reality throughout the world, which echoes that of Inter Care.
“This makes them the perfect partner for our charity and we are hugely grateful and honoured to receive their support.”
Both Morningside and Inter Care are proud winners of a Queen’s Award.
Morningside holds the Queen’s Award for Enterprise – International Trade, for outstanding achievement by UK businesses. While Inter Care holds the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service, in recognition of the support the charity receives from more than 50 volunteers, many of whom are medically trained.
To find out more about Morningside Pharmaceuticals, please go to their website.
