Edward Booty

Socioeconomic challengeOver 52% of the world’s population lacks access to essential health services, with 30% unable to obtain basic medicines. In underserved rural regions of low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), health infrastructure is insufficient to meet the needs of millions. reach52 addresses this global healthcare challenge by providing affordable healthcare products and extending primary care services to the doors of rural residents, supported by its mHealth digital platform. Purpose and strategyreach52’s mission is clear: to support the 52% of the global population facing health access challenges. The organisation provides equitable and affordable healthcare solutions, focusing on local health systems, essential medicines and targeted community-based care. The organisation’s core values—scalable impact, collaboration, innovation, perseverance and ownership—guide its approach. Through the deployment of community health workers and the use of technology, reach52 ensures that rural communities receive timely healthcare services, with the goal of reaching 6 million beneficiaries in 2024. Impact and innovationreach52 has made significant strides in improving healthcare access in rural communities across India, Indonesia, Myanmar and the Philippines. In 2024, reach52 will have engaged over 6 million individuals through 150,000 community health events, including group-based Health Education Meetings (HEMs) and health camps providing no-fee medical consultations. The programme also supports 3.8 million individuals in purchasing low-cost medicines through partnerships with 72,000 rural pharmacies.Since the organisation's inception, reach52's health system capacity-building activities have empowered over 15,000 community health workers, nurses and midwives. These healthcare workers deliver door-to-door consultations, educate residents on preventative healthcare and provide critical insights into their communities' health needs. Additionally, the organisation’s mHealth platform collects data from rural residents, helping to create a hyper-localised understanding of health gaps. This data informs reach52’s health campaigns, ensuring that interventions are tailored to the specific needs of each community. Future outlookreach52 is committed to scaling its impact by reaching 100 million underserved rural individuals by 2030, contributing to the achievement of SDG3 and universal health coverage. The organisation will continue to expand its portfolio of affordable medicines and access points while further digitising its operations. By reinvesting profits from its commercial operations into community health initiatives, reach52 ensures the sustainability of its programmes and continues to build the capacity of local health systems. With a long-term vision of improving health equity, reach52 is driving meaningful change across low-and middle-income countries.

ChallengeAcross Asia and Africa, billions remain cut off from essential healthcare. Globally, over 52 per cent of people lack access to essential health services, while 30 per cent are without essential medicines. The consequences are devastating: treatable conditions go unmanaged, preventable illnesses become fatal, and families fall into cycles of debt and poverty. In countries such as India, Indonesia, and across Africa, rural and peri-urban communities face the sharpest barriers. Clinics are too far, medicines are too expensive or not even available, and public health information is uneven at best. Governments continue to expand Universal Health Coverage (UHC), but the gap between policy and reality remains wide. Solutionreach52 was founded on the belief that equitable healthcare is achievable if approaches are redesigned for underserved markets. Its model is built on two reinforcing pillars: Impact and Access. Impact delivers public health campaigns, community education, and health-worker upskilling, ensuring that people know when and how to seek care. Access focuses on registering and distributing affordable medicines through pharmacies, hospitals, and clinics in ‘tier-2,’ and below communities. The model is sustainable by design. Margins from medicine sales fund the Impact work, while the education and outreach campaigns generate awareness and demand for the Access products. This creates a closed loop where social good and commercial viability enable each other, building markets where traditional pharmaceutical models see only barriers. In 2024 alone, reach52 organised 99,343 Health Education events, 2,255 health camps (essential free clinics), and conducted 1:1 engagements through targeted Impact campaigns, reaching more than 5 million people with information and screening on topics ranging from non-communicable disease prevention and immunisation to maternal health. ImpactThese efforts were supported by over 38,000 Community Health Workers and aligned to state-level government health priorities. On the Access side, reach52 has built a strong presence in India and is expanding across 15 markets in Africa, making products available to over 25,000 pharmacies and clinics through 400+ distribution partnerships. The impact goes beyond metrics. For rural families, it means a child can receive antibiotics without a costly journey to the city. For a farmer with hypertension, it means medicine is priced within reach. And for governments, it means stronger enablement of universal health coverage targets, powered by private innovation that complements public systems. Future outlookBy 2025, reach52 aims to expand its portfolio to 80 essential medicines and reach five million beneficiaries through health campaigns and camps. Pilots in India, Southeast Asia, and Africa will introduce five to 10 new public health campaigns and new essential products each year, further closing gaps in access. Longer term, the organisation has set an ambitious goal: to improve 50 million lives by the end of 2029 with affordable medicines, health information, and services. To get there, beyond the core operations, reach52 is investing in governance, quality, compliance, and technology operations too. A new digital platform is being rolled out to track impact, supply chain, and health worker engagement in real time, strengthening monitoring and operational efficiency. Ultimately, reach52 is showing that inclusive healthcare is not just an aspiration but a viable business model. By proving that serving those at the margins can be sustainable, it is pushing the healthcare sector closer to equity, one community at a time.

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Edward Booty

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Edward is the founder and CEO of reach52; a company on a mission to connect the 52% of the world that lack access to essential health services.

Bridging rural health gaps with technology and access

Reaching the 52% left behind by health system