Pharmaceutical Partnerships and Social Marketing

Affordable public health products are not always available to lower income and at-risk population groups. Worldwide, it often takes pharmaceutical partnerships and social marketing programs to increase both access to and demand for products such as contraceptives, oral rehydration salts, and pediatric zinc.

SHOPS Plus works to increase the availability and affordability of high quality health products by: 

• Partnering with commercial manufacturers, distributors, and retailers
• Changing consumer and provider behavior
• Strengthening existing local social marketing programs
• Addressing regulatory barriers
• Conducting market research, market segmentation analyses, and tracking activities such as retail audits and mystery client surveys

Our partners include international and local R&D and generic drug manufacturers, country-based distributors, advertising agencies, social marketing organizations, and professional associations.

Examples of our work

In Nepal, the project is working with the Nepal CRS Company to redesign an initiative to introduce more effective behavior change techniques, link outreach activities to community development strategies, and strengthen sustainability. The new approach will involve more focused efforts on behavior change, including the timely use of data to measure progress in changing behavioral drivers. 

In Afghanistan, the project is providing financial and technical support with the aim of strengthening the impact and sustainability of the organization. The project supports the distribution of health products at an affordable price nationally, provides technical training to private providers, and motivates Afghans to use the products through social and behavior change communications.

Countries: Afghanistan, Haiti (Increase Family Planning Availability, Promoting Water Treatment), India, Madagascar, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Senegal (Public Stewardship, Increasing Health Product Demand), Tanzania