While still an undergraduate student at the University of Michigan, Derrell Chapman had the chance to travel to Africa to learn more about the global biomedical engineering industry.
While in Nigeria, he met pharmacists with a “laundry list” of needs, among them solving the problem of counterfeit drugs.
The design-process gears in Chapman’s brain started turning, and he soon joined forces with his co-founder, Sujai Arakali, to create a device that attached to a smartphone that could detect counterfeit drugs.
In 2018, the pair launched NeoHealth. The startup gained recognition and was connected with both the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other universities, but Chapman began to realize the product did not address the core of the problem.
“This issue was much deeper,” Chapman said. “We had to take a step back and say, ‘why are these counterfeit drugs flowing out into the streets?’ … We chose to address the core issue of pharmacy management.”
Still an undergraduate student, that meant a lot of late nights and early mornings.
“It was nonstop,” Chapman said. “We were in communication at all times bringing this dream of ours to life.”
NeoHealth pivoted and created a pharmacy management software platform for developing countries and low-resource settings. The technology includes an inventory tracker, patient database and point-of-sales system, which all can work without internet access.
For some of the pharmacies NeoHealth works with, it replaces pen-and-paper systems. For others, it provides an upgrade from software systems not designed for pharmacy purposes.
NeoHealth is currently in the process of testing its software.
Before the pandemic struck, Chapman would travel to Nigeria for site visits and customer meetings. The startup initially planned to release its platform commercially in March of last year, but travel restrictions slowed that process.
To meet those changing circumstances, NeoHealth spent much of its time during the pandemic adding more features to the software. Chapman said he has plans to send the software to some stakeholders by the end of March or early April, get feedback and release it to the remainder of the company’s 50 stakeholders and commercialize it by the start of 2022.
“Our plan B is to deploy by the end of this month if we can get clearance to go deploy virtually,” Chapman said.
For now, NeoHealth plans to focus its efforts in Nigeria, but eventually Chapman said he can see the company expanding to other regions. Next could be Ghana, where Chapman has already spent some time working in the OB-GYN department of a hospital. He also said the company is looking into markets in India and the Philippines.
Chapman did not disclose how much the startup, which has six employees, has raised in funding so far.
NeoHealth has started the process of getting in contact with the distribution companies that bring pharmaceuticals to these pharmacies. Chapman said next the startup plans to develop tech for those distribution companies, as well as a patient-facing tech for the pharmacies.
Eventually, NeoHealth intends to return some of its focus to the counterfeit drug detection device, pairing it with the software platform. From there, he hopes the tech can build heat maps of places where counterfeit drugs are most prevalent.
“We want to bring it full circle,” Chapman said.
Q&A
What are the pros and cons of being a young entrepreneur? The pros are that you really get the opportunity to live out your dream and see your vision come to life every day. It’s not easy, but at the end of the day, you are working on something you have passion for and a love for. The cons are that sometimes it is stressful being an entrepreneur. It’s like a roller coaster with ups and downs. You have some amazing weeks and some terrible weeks.
How do you get people to take you seriously as a young entrepreneur? It’s funny because this was a huge problem when we were going through business challenges. We were young and sitting in offices requesting funding. We really had to show our experience. My co-founder and I, we both won a number of biomedical innovation challenges and business challenges and competitions at Johns Hopkins and MIT and the University of Michigan, so we showed our best and did the best we could, and the results showed up. … You will eventually run into someone who is going to listen.
What advice would you give to another young entrepreneur? The biggest thing is there are good days and bad days when you start a business. You have to have a vision. You can either complain because roses have thorns or rejoice that thorns have roses. You always have to go back to your “why,” and when you get back to your why, you will regain your energy and your passion.
TIMELINES
Personal
2019
Graduated from the University of Michigan with a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry and philosophy and moved to Pittsburgh
Professional
Fall 2018
Company founded
Summer 2019
Pivoted from device to software platform
January 2021
Finalized software product
April 2021
NeoHealth plans to deploy its software for stakeholders virtually
January 2022
NeoHealth plans to release its software commercially
BIOBOX
Title: Co-founder, NeoHealth
Age: 24
Dream job: Physician or chief medical officer
If you could have a conversation with anyone in history, who would it be? “W.E.B. Du Bois because of his ability to get attention with his words and how he framed sentences and articulated himself. Everything he did while he was alive broke down barriers to pave the future.“
