Ghanaian health tech start-up firm, mPharma, has launched a PCR based, Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) test kit as part of activities to commemorate International Women's Day.

The new product is to enable the scaling up of the screening of HPV, the most common risk factor for cervical cancer among women. HPV causes over 90% of cervical cancer in women.

Launching the product, Chief Operations Officer of mPharma, Sophia Baah said its 10,000 Women initiative is to send signal to women, particularly corporate women to be mindful about their health.

She said “the idea is to test 10,000 Women in Ghana and Nigeria for cervical cancer. What we are doing is offering a test that under normal circumstances will cost between $300 and 400 dollars, but we're offering their tests for free. You have a test kit that is costing 50 that gives you a self-sampling brush that you can use in the privacy of your own home. We take the sample collected and test for you.”

She added that mPharma would also be supporting underprivileged women by testing them for free. She stated “we have another group of women who are more underprivileged. And for those women, we are actually doing the sampling and testing for free.”

Also at the launch was the Head of the Cervical Cancer Prevention Training Centre, Dr. Kofi Effa.

He took the opportunity to encourage more men to drive HPV awareness.

He said, “HPV is not something that is limited to only women. Men are also at risk of getting HPV and cancers. That is why we recommend vaccination for not only girls but also boys nine to 14 years old before they get into contact with HPV and before they become sexually active. So it is not only about screening, but when you talk about primary prevention, we’re talking about vaccination as well.

mPharma is a Ghanaian health tech star-tup that manages prescription drug inventory for pharmacies and their clients across the country.