SwipeRx founder Farouk Meralli witnessed independent pharmacies throughout Indonesia struggling to keep their shelves stocked with needed supplies, as well as medicines affordable for patients. It concerned him. He knew people in Southeast Asia visit pharmacies, a critical link in the healthcare chain, 10 times more often than physician offices. The stockouts, lack of inventory tracking and inconsistent pricing meant that pharmacies provided an inconsistent level of service to their end patients.
This prompted Meralli to develop a solution to fix these logistical weaknesses and equip the pharmacists and other health workers to build their skills, improving care consistency and quality. The result was SwipeRx.
SwipeRx first built an all-in-one mobile app for pharmacists to connect with peers and access accredited professional education, industry news, a drug directory and customized e-referral tools. After connecting a third of all pharmacies in Southeast Asia, it launched a Group Purchasing Organization for independent pharmacies, enabling them to access a full range of medicines at pre-negotiated prices.
“With SwipeRx, pharmacies now have instant access to affordable, readily available medicines—ensuring patients receive the care they need when they need it.”
To grow SwipeRx, Meralli secured financial backing from investors, including Impact Ventures by J&J Foundation, but he also identified obstacles that could not be solved with capital alone. Meralli needed to evolve SwipeRx but had limited capacity within his small team. Impact Ventures identified experts within Johnson & Johnson who could donate expertise through a unique employee pro bono program.
In 2023, a logistics expert from J&J provided pro bono support to SwipeRx for six months to improve the design and processes of SwipeRx’s new distribution center, advising on order flow and strategies to enhance productivity and improve service delivery.
And in 2024, J&J leaders Alex Koulaouzos and Laura Smith worked with the growing startup to help them develop long-term strategies. Koulaouzos, a Regional Franchise Director, Asia Pacific Biosurgery with J&J MedTech Australia; and Smith, a Trade Activation Manager with Vistakon UK, J&J MedTech United Kingdom, evaluated the potential challenges and opporunities of a new product under development. The two employees spent time with the SwipeRx team analyzing existing information and identifying where they could fill gaps. Meralli shared that Koulaouzos and Smith built out detailed templates, timelines and guidelines that would become essential for SwipeRx to implement this new strategy.
Brennan Leong, Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) at SwipeRx, engaged with Koulaouzos and Smith and saw first-hand the value of their work. “Specific technical knowledge can be difficult to find,” he said. “To have people come in who have the expertise and want to be there made this experience so meaningful.” Koulaouzos and Smith became an extension of the SwipeRx team, integrating seamlessly into day-to-day work and offering tangible solutions. This collaboration led to the creation of an adaptable playbook to guide SwipeRx through the execution of future ideas.
With this specialized support from Impact Ventures, Meralli and his team at SwipeRx strengthened their business, laying the future path for the company to continue expanding its reach to more patients across the region. Today, SwipeRx is transforming the ecosystem of pharmacy-driven healthcare in Indonesia, reaching over 300,000 pharmacy professionals from 50,000 pharmacies and reducing the prices of essential medicines with its market-based group purchasing mechanism. And they are just getting started.