Morẹ́nikẹ́ Ẹniọlá Ọláòṣebìkan

Born in Nigeria during the height of the HIV epidemic, Morẹ́nikẹ́ Ọláòṣebìkan grew up with an awareness of health inequities in African countries. She organized the Ribbon Rouge event as an undergraduate to raise funds for HIV efforts, and it has become an international organization that works for health equity in Canada and has special consultative status with the United Nations. In 2021, the pharmacist and business owner founded Kemet Group, a startup that aims to boost drug-manufacturing capacity in Africa. In 2022, Ọláòṣebìkan built a software platform that tackled an immediate crisis in children’s pain medication as part of its larger work to reformulate drugs to improve patient experiences.

While Kemet’s long term goal is to create access to personalized medicines on demand across Africa, they are currently operating a compounding lab [KemPound], a software development company [KemNet] and a pharmaceutical engineering project [KemBox] at the Edmonton Research Park. Kemet increases medication accessibility to end users by investing in understanding the various challenges that equity deserving communities face when they are trying to access pharmaceutical care. Kemet is deeply invested in understanding various medication needs of diverse populations to co-create, make and deliver equitable, sustainable personalized medicine solutions. With the success of their proof of concept in Canada, they are securing purchase orders and joint ventures to replicate their lab and software in paid pilot projects from 2023 to 2025 in Kenya, Nigeria, Botswana and Mauritius. They are exploring new market opportunities across all other 50 African countries. With compassion and strategic thinking, Ọláòṣebìkan is making a difference around the corner and the world.

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