Calling medical minds

Sandoz, the Novartis generic and biosimilar pharmaceutical division, announced the launch of Sandoz HACk – Healthcare Access Challenge – a global competition.

The competition seeks to generate innovative ideas and solutions to help tackle some of the world’s most pressing healthcare access problems.

Carel Meintjes, commercial excellence head at Sandoz said, “We are seeing healthcare costs increasing at a rate faster than inflation in South Africa. I am convinced that there are brilliant young minds with wonderful, innovative ideas on how to improve healthcare.

“We believe that Sandoz HACk will create the platform to voice these creative ideas which will ultimately help to improve access to healthcare in South Africa.”

Meintjes explained that despite the significant advances made in modern medicine, more than two billion people worldwide cannot access the medicines they need and more than 400 million lack access to essential health services. Adding that the combined efforts of stakeholders across both public and private sectors, including the pharmaceutical industry, not-for-profit organisations and governments have made significant advances in tackling healthcare access challenges worldwide.
“But these large-scale systemic initiatives need to be supported by community-led change, driven by innovative small-scale solutions that can make a big difference. Therefore, Sandoz HACk has been launched, inviting people to generate novel solutions to tackle key healthcare access challenges in local communities.”

Sandoz HACk is open for entries from 18- to 35-year-olds around the world. Following a robust judging process, the six finalist entries will be published on www.openideo.com
Meintjes stated that entrants’ ideas will be refined and evolved in partnership with this online community before being presented to a panel of judges. Three winners will be chosen and awarded seed funding and mentorship to help bring their ideas to life.
The competition is open for entries until November 30 this year.
Details: To enter the competition and the terms and conditions click here. 

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