Dr. Ismail D Badjie, PharmD

In April 2015, while still managing high-volume community pharmacy in the United States, Dr. Badjie founded InnovaRx Global Health on a thesis that became the spine of everything that followed: that diaspora-trained healthcare professionals, deployed against the operating gap in their countries of origin, could build infrastructure that neither the donor system nor the local public sector was structured to build alone.

Innovarx was registered in the United States, capitalised through a multi-round convertible note structure with more than twenty noteholders, and operated in pilot mode for four years before the country operation opened. Those years were spent stress-testing the model, building the diaspora investor base, and securing the regulatory and partnership scaffolding that the eventual Gambian launch would require.

Dr. Badjie returned to The Gambia in 2019 to open the country operation. What began as a single wellness centre has grown into West Africa’s first vertically integrated pharmaceutical and HIV service-delivery platform, reaching more than 200,000 patients across all five regions of The Gambia through wellness centres, mobile units, e-commerce, motorcycle-based last-mile delivery, and the WOW Health vending-machine network providing 24/7 access to HIV self-testing kits.

The platform integrates HIV, non-communicable disease, sexual and reproductive health, and diagnostic services into a unified primary care model — with shared clinical protocols, EHR infrastructure, and bi-directional referral pathways with the public sector. Cross-border coordination along the Senegambia corridor extends services to mobile populations that conventional facility-based programs miss.

In 2024 the Medicines Control Agency, applying a regulatory framework written for a pharmaceutical market that did not yet exist, seized FDA-approved medications from Innovarx warehouses and shut the company down. It was the third existential threat in eight years — after COVID nearly took the company out and after years of capital constraint that produced 80% revenue contraction, payroll arrears, and active management of more than twenty convertible noteholders through prolonged uncertainty.

The company rebuilt from each one. Revenue reached $2M+ on approximately $740K raised. Patient services held continuity through the worst of the operating environment. The financial, programmatic, and compliance data trails from that period now serve as one of Innovarx’s most credible assets in front of investors and donors who have lived through similar cycles.

As founding President of GARPA — the Gambia Association for Pharmaceutical and Related Products Advancement, formed by merging two predecessor industry bodies under a single national association — Dr. Badjie led the multi-year private-sector advocacy that produced the Medicines and Related Products Amendment Act 2025.

The work involved sustained engagement with the Ministry of Health, the Medicines Control Agency, and the relevant parliamentary committee, alongside the drafting of the new regulatory framework itself. The Act, passed in 2025, modernised the legislation that had paralysed the pharmaceutical sector for half a decade and created the conditions for the next generation of private-sector health investment in the country.

Dr. Badjie continues to lead Innovarx Global Health while serving as Program Manager for a $1.17M Global Fund GC7 HIV Prevention sub-recipient grant under ActionAid International The Gambia — with implementation responsibility for differentiated service delivery across four key populations, a 205-person peer educator workforce, and an age-disaggregated Young Key Populations strategy adapted for the country’s majority-Muslim context.

In parallel, Kartan Holdings LLC is closing a Series A targeting development finance institutions and impact investors. The capital structures the next decade of the group’s work: pharmaceutical wholesale through Kartan Pharma Limited, additional operating subsidiaries including Kartan Health Club and Kartan Water, and an expanded West African footprint along the Senegambia corridor.