A Message to our Pharmacies and Pharmacists

13th August 2020

Dear Colleagues,
In this week’s newsletter we cover: updates on the pandemic, highlights of the August product list, and community engagement updates.

COVID-19 Situation Report
The NCDC, as at Thursday, 6th August, 2020, reported 354 new cases across the country from 17 states including FCT (78), Nasarawa (17), Lagos (76), and Rivers (17). More details available on https://covid19.ncdc.gov.ng/. 

August Service News
This month you will see significant expansions and important price reductions in each market! Please contact our operations team to help with the subscription process for these SKUs. Note that price changes take effect from next week 14th August 2020.
Access more products sooner
The list of Pay As You Sell SKUs available in your first six weeks has doubled - now new locations can access over 200+SKUs from their first days with Shelf Life. 
Majority of products reduced in price 
Global supply chain interruptions and rapid currency devaluations have driven widespread product scarcity and extreme price volatility. We have seen wholesale prices increase an average 5% and some essentials have jumped over 12% in the past three months. This comes at a time when household incomes in our markets are at their lowest, putting new pressure on retail prices. 
Despite these headwinds, we are slashing prices on  SKUs to help you maintain competitive advantage to ensure your business can continue to serve and sustain through this challenging time. 
Some prices have increased from July but these are largely driven by seasonal demand and we have made every attempt to buffer you from these too. 
Kindly review the product list and consider expanding your subscriptions to maximise this opportunity for you and your customers. 
Supply Planning Upgrades 
With both Supply and Demand so disrupted in the market, we have been increasing our investment in the stock we consign to your shelves for each SKU. We will communicate specific changes as needed throughout the month, but the goal remains the same as it always has been: ensure availability so you never miss a sale.  
Conclusively, more selection, more stock, better prices mean more sales and treatment opportunities. 

Referrals
We believe there could not be a better time to work with Shelf Life. We are increasing the reward for referring new pharmacies to join the network. For the month of August,, both you and the pharmacy you refer to Shelf Life will  receive 10,000 NGN when they join. 

Reach out to learn more. 

Community Engagement
University of Lagos Pre-induction Ceremony
Congratulations to the 18/19 inductees from the faculty of pharmacy, university of Lagos! We were excited to join a panel of speakers selected from all facets of pharmacy practice. We underscored our commitment to availing the practice community with expertise and resources to address key business challenges in a rapidly changing environment. 

Also, our CEO and co-founder sat down with Vikas Raj from Accion Venture Lab to talk about the critical role Shelf Life is playing for community pharmacies during the pandemic. Listen to the episode of VentureKast podcast here

Other News
The FIP COVID-19 Online Programme “Responding to the pandemic together” continues to gather evidence on the effects of COVID-19 on pharmacy services to be disseminated later this month

We are hiring for territory leads and fulfilment partners to join our team! If this sounds interesting to you or someone you know would be a fit, great! Please visit our careers page https://www.shelflife.co/careers/ and feel free to share information widely within your network  

Kenya
In COVID related news in Kenya, Nairobi continues to lead in the number of diagnosed cases so far with 15840 positive cases as at Sunday 9th August 2020. Below is a snapshot of the situation report as at the last reporting period yesterday:
Nationwide Case fatality rate is at 1.5%.
1,062 more recoveries were reported yesterday, the highest number Kenya has ever recorded in a day since the virus was first confirmed on march 13.
From the recoveries yesterday, 79 were discharged from hospitals and 983 from home-based care programmes.
Total number of positive cases is at 26346 and the total number of tests done so far is at 353727.

For more on this please  visit http://www.health.go.ke/covid-19/ and keep up to date with the latest information and guidelines.
In Shelf Life service related news:

August Price List 
We reduced the prices for three hundred and thirty-seven (337) products in this new month.  Please take advantage of this and add new products to your subscriptions. Some of these PROMOTED PRODUCTS in the month of August  include:

 

*Please refer to the full inventory list for details on this and other new products we have added this month.Note that the  new price list issued last week goes into effect on 10th August 2020, please feel free to give feedback on price changes that may not be favorable for you in this new month and we will be sure to unsubscribe you from those products. No communication or feedback will mean we will start invoicing with the new prices after the effective date. KINDLY TAKE NOTE OF THE CHANGES.


Referrals 
We believe there could not be a better time to work with Shelf Life. We are increasing the reward for referring new pharmacies to join the network. Starting this month, both you and the pharmacy you refer to will both receive 2500 Ksh when they join the service. Please reach out to learn more about this.

In General News please see below updates this week: 
Our CEO and co-founder sat down with Vikas Raj from Action Venture Lab to talk about the critical role Shelf Life is playing for community pharmacies during the pandemic. Listen to the episode of VentureKast podcast here.

The Ministry of Health has released National Antimicrobial Stewardship Guidelines for Healthcare Settings. This is an effort that has been going on for 2 years involving partners in the health sector. Click here to get the guidelines.

FIP has released guidelines COVID-19 Guidelines for pharmacists and the pharmacy workforce. You can download the guidelines on this link: https://www.fip.org/file/4729

Capacity Building: Please take note of the following up-coming PPB-CPD accredited webinars:
Wednesday 12th August 2020- Effective Spasmolytic Pain Management.
Wednesday 19th August 2020- The role of a Pharmacist in Prevention of VTE and VTE Safety Zone.

Stay Safe.
Your friends at Shelf Life