5) Description of health product/service offering: Through investments in science and scale our primary contribution is in the prevention of malaria. We do so with an innovative and technology platform that targets the need of low-income population in the developing world. This made us the first company to put LLIN’s into commercial production, the first company to develop ITP’s and the first company to develop ITWL.

Our marketing model allows us to go beyond the biological audience of pregnant women and children under 5 traditionally targeted by NGO’s and UN’s, and service everyone at risk.

Massive investments in among other LLIN’s give us the ability to supply more than 60 million LLIN’s per year, presently accounting for more than 80% of the global market.

6) Description of innovation: Being one of the few private for profit companies who have successfully broken the code to sustainable business with Sub-Saharan Africa, our approach has been based on 3 segments:

1) Public Equity: In partnerships with NGO’s, UN’s and a variety of MoH’s we are active in the provision of free LLIN’s (Long Lasting Insecticidal Nets) and ITP’s (Insecticide Treated Plastic sheeting) to not only low- income population, but also refugees and internally displaced population. 2) Subsidized and socially marketed products: In cooperation with NGO’s we train distributors, build commercials and invest in brand awareness, to eventually take over from the social marketing organization in a commercially sustainable way. This transition has already been performed in 2 cases. This market approach spans over a number of income quintiles. 3) Commercial markets: Our presence on ground allows to train and assist national commercial distributors, and build a market for life saving products in the most sustainable way i.e. for profit.

Through our regional management and strategy support we have proven the ability to make all 3 models co-exist in one country.

Our market model is supported by a massive investment in product development, focusing on convenience and the ability to make the tools fit the people. The very unique thing in our company is our focus on developing products for developing regions, rather than focusing on wealthier regions and then adapting the products to the developing world.

7) Operational model: Vestergaard Frandsen is built in a networking structure, that provides the ability for rapid scale-up. Our organization only deals with its core competences of innovation, quality control, rapid scale investments and marketing and communication. This means that although we control and manage most parts of the value chain, we do not operate every part.

Servicing at risk population with life saving products in developing nations we are structured with regional management (servicing multiple countries), but national presence through a traveling knowledge workforce, national agents and national distributors.

The operational model is based on the segmentation described under point 6.

8) Human resources: The team consists of 96 people in 9 countries.

The primary focus is on managing the value chain (app 16 people) Innovating new life saving products (app 11 people) Quality control of life saving products (app 13 people) Investing in scaling up (app 8 people) and marketing within our hybrid model for successful creation on access to life saving products for all at risk (app 36 people).

It must be stressed that the total number of people employed in the value chain managed by Vestergaard Frandsen exceeds a works force 15.000 people.

9) Key operational partnerships: Partnerships are created throughout the value chain. Specifically business – social partnerships are created in the reach of low-income population (which is explained under point 6) where we now count more than 170 partnerships with various NGO’s, UN’s and MoH’s.

In the development of new life saving products we bring on partners in acknowledgement of the specific areas of expertise possessed by business and the social sector respectively. In our experience, the private sector is perfectly capable of innovation, risk taking and technical skills to apply new technology to an old problem – Malaria. The role of the private sector, though technically skilled, is often one without direct application to the task at hand. The aid agencies and UN though understanding the operational context and needs are generally without the capacity to develop the new tools needed. The social or public sector responsibility within the partnership therefore becomes one of goal setting and evaluation of the tool.

Product development partnerships have been undertaken with:

- World Health Organisation - Mentor Initiative - Johns Hopkins - The Carter Centre - Liverpool school of tropical medicines - London school of hygiene and tropical medicines - International Atomic Energy Agency … and many more

10) Financial Sustainability

          • Fees charged to clients?: Yes

          • How do you assure affordability?: Our products become affordable through the market based partnership model for scaling up, as shown under point 6 above.

          • Earned incomes as a percentage of operating costs: ?

          • Other funding sources: Our company is financially profitable, and the resources generated in the market based partnership model is our only source of income.

          • Strategy for long-term sustainability: We will secure our sustainability by staying on track with scaling up access to life saving products, by continuing to build distribution infrastructure on ground and by ensuring our competitiveness through the continuous innovation of life saving products that are accepted by the right people, and made affordable through the right partnerships.

11) Current and Future Impact

          • Total number of clients: 130M users

          • Clients in the past year: 72M users

          • Percentage of low-income clients: +90

          • Impact: A documented impact on the burden of disease. The develpment of a culture of trade with life saving products. Most importantly we have shown other bigger companies that working with malaria and neglected diseases is a possible investment, thereby prompting their investment.

          • Overall "market": The demand for bednets is by Vestergaard Frandsen estimated to be in the region of 90 million nets per year.

12) Scaling up strategy

          • Stage of the initiative: Scaling Up stage.

          • Expansion plan: We will expnad to continue meeting market demand for LLIN.

We will expand to offer a wider portfolio of prevention in malaria and negelected diseases.

13) Policy change: Removal of taxes and tariffs of LLINs

14) Origin of the initiative: Mikkel Vestergaard Frandsen is the C.E.O of Vestergaard Frandsen S.A., Mikkel became CEO in 1997 and in just under ten years has transformed his family business into a model of corporate social responsibility developing life saving products such as insecticide mosquito nets and sheeting as well as water filtration straws for emergency relief operations, international aid organizations and the United Nations. He is a member of the private sector delegation to The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and joins working groups under the Roll Back Malaria partnership. Mikkel holds an MBA from Henley Management College in England.

Contact Information:
Mikkel  Vestergaard Frandsen
CEO
Vestergaard Frandsen SA
(business)
mvf@vestergaard-frandsen.com
Switzerland
Tel: +41213107333
Email: mvf@vestergaard-frandsen.com
Website: www.vestergaard-frandsen.com