Nairobi, Kenya – Tuesday 29 September 2026: Mission for Essential Drugs and Supplies (MEDS) today launched MEDS Devane Company Limited (MDCL), a new commercial company that opens MEDS’ trusted supply chain to Kenya’s private healthcare sector, as it marked 40 years of expanding access to quality, affordable health products in Kenya and beyond. MDCL opens for business on 1 November 2026.
Cabinet Secretary for Health Hon. Aden Duale EGH launched MDCL, together with the new MEDS-Strathmore Supply Chain Academy, at the MEDS 40th Anniversary Celebration at a colourful ceremony in Nairobi.
The launch featured the live unveiling of MDCL’s logo and corporate colours and a walkthrough of its upcoming website, www.mdcl.co.ke.
MDCL will serve private hospitals, clinics, retail pharmacies, laboratories, corporates and distributors with quality-assured medicines, medical consumables, diagnostics, laboratory products, infection prevention and control solutions, orthopaedic implants, equipment and other specialized products, backed by traceable supply-chain systems. Its immediate focus is Kenya, with a longer-term ambition to serve selected markets across East Africa.
“As Kenya’s healthcare landscape continues to evolve, the private healthcare sector, pharmacies and other healthcare institutions require a commercially responsive partner that understands the urgency, complexity and responsibility of healthcare delivery,” said Rt. Rev. Benard Owuor, Chair of the MDCL Board of Directors. “MDCL has been established to meet this need.”
The company operates as a distinct, professionally governed commercial entity that will promote access to quality health products to a wider range of clientele. “Our ambition is not only to grow a successful company, but to grow a trusted company,” Rt. Rev. Owuor said. “We believe that commercial success and positive health impact can, and should, go together.”
MEDS Chief Executive Officer Dr. Wycliffe Nandama, who is also MDCL’s Acting General Manager, said the company was built around the needs of private providers. “Today’s healthcare customers need more than products on a shelf. They need quality assurance, dependable availability, timely delivery, professional support and a partner who understands that every product supplied can have a direct impact on patient care,” he said. “Our commitment is simple: quality products, reliable service and meaningful partnerships.”
The company is named after Rev. Sr. Joan Devane, the American medical missionary and pharmacist who founded MEDS in 1986 in a small warehouse in Ruaraka, Nairobi, stocking just 30 products. “Her legacy reminds us that healthcare is not simply about products and transactions; it is about service, trust, professionalism and the wellbeing of communities,” Rt. Rev. Owuor said.
Four decades on, MEDS stocks more than 2,000 health products and technologies, serves facilities in all 47 counties and has reached more than 10,000 clients. Its WHO-prequalified Quality Control Laboratory has supported quality assurance in more than 46 countries and analysed approximately 2,350 samples in 2025 alone. Its Health Systems Strengthening programmes reach more than 20,000 healthcare workers every year, a foundation the new Supply Chain Academy will build on. MEDS became a self-sustaining social enterprise in 2005, ending its reliance on donor funding.
Speaking at the celebration, Health Cabinet Secretary Hon. Aden Duale EGH commended MEDS for its role in quality assurance, noting its work with the Pharmacy and Poisons Board on laboratory testing and post-market surveillance to detect substandard and falsified health products. “I want in particular to recognize MEDS for a contribution that may be less visible than the delivery of supplies, but is just as important: its commitment to quality assurance,” said CS Duale. He cited MEDS’ World Health Organization prequalification since 2009, ISO 9001:2015 certification and ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation, saying that maintaining such demanding standards over time “speaks to the discipline of its staff and the strength of its systems.”
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The Cabinet Secretary said faith-based facilities are indispensable partners in the Government’s universal health coverage agenda, with 876 faith-based health facilities holding active contracts with the Social Health Authority (SHA) and KSh 29.8 billion paid out against claims worth KSh 41.1 billion. “Universal health coverage is realised at the point of care. It depends on a facility being open, a health worker being available, a patient being able to afford treatment, and quality-assured medicine being there when it is needed,” he said.
“As you enter your fifth decade, I encourage you to preserve the values on which you were founded while investing in the capabilities the future will demand,” CS Duale told MEDS. “Kenya needs strong supply systems, skilled health workers and dependable, independent quality testing capacity. MEDS has an important role in each of these areas.”
“The strength of healthcare depends not only on the medicine itself, but also on the strength of the supply chain that carries it from innovation to the patient,” said Dr. Nandama.
The ceremony, held under the theme “Celebrating 40 Years of Life Saving Health Solutions – Legacy. Impact. Posterity.”, brought together representatives of MEDS’ founding institutions, the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB) and the Christian Health Association of Kenya (CHAK), alongside government, partners, suppliers and staff. Murang’a County Governor Dr. Irungu Kang’ata and Rt. Rev. Cleophas Oseso, Chairman of the MEDS Board of Trustees and Directors, also addressed the gathering.
Closing the launch, Rt. Rev. Owuor called on private healthcare providers to partner with MDCL for the same quality and affordability MEDS is known for.
“MDCL is built on trust and designed for tomorrow,” he said. “We are proud to launch a company that combines commercial sustainability with a lasting commitment to quality healthcare.”
