About us

We are on a mission for better health. Since 1975 we have contributed to improving global health by supplying quality medicines and medical devices to people all over the world. Every year more than 100 million people are treated with medicine supplied by Missionpharma.

Missionpharma is a leading global supplier of pharmaceuticals, medical consumables, hospital equipment and medical kits. Our aim is to strengthen healthcare globally through engagement, cooperation and impactful solutions in close partnership with local stakeholders. 

We employ 60 people in our Danish headquarters in Lynge and 160 people globally.

Our offices in the headquarters in Lynge.

Customised solutions

Our business approach is based on understanding the environment in which our products are intended to be used. We specialise in adjusting our services to specific local requirements and customer challenges to ensure that our solutions make a sustainable impact.

Medical kits form the baseline for healthcare in many countries. Kits typically contain pharmaceuticals and medical consumables for general or specific use.

Read more about our products and services

CASE: Improving basic health in South Sudan

Missionpharma has been a key supplier of medical kits to health facilities all over South Sudan for decades. We work closely with our partners to ensure that life-saving medicine reach the people in need.

We optimise packing and distribution to overcome extreme weather conditions and a challenging infrastructure in order to ensure safe arrival at the health facilities.

Without a doubt, decades of experience in managing complex and large-scale projects truly stands the test when designing and implementing challenging projects in South Sudan.

Backed by the best

Missionpharma has joined forces with the strongest and most progressive companies in the pharmaceutical, retail, automotive and equipment-distribution industries in Africa. Since 2012, we have been a proud member of CFAO Healthcare, the healthcare division of CFAO Group – a multibillion-dollar group owned by Toyota Tsusho Corporation. This makes us stronger and better equipped to continue to support our customers with sustainable solutions for many years ahead.

Missionpharma is a proud member of CFAO Healthcare – a leading distributor of pharmaceutical products and services in Africa and the French overseas territories.

Read more about CFAO Healthcare and the CFAO Group

 

Cooperation with Fazzini

Missionpharma and Fazzini are both part of CFAO Healthcare and work together to serve CFAO Healthcare’s institutional clients. The cooperation between Missionpharma and Fazzini generates important opportunities to better serve our institutional clients with a large range of quality hospital furniture and medical equipment coupled with associated services.

Through our partnership, we are able to cross-fertilize our resources and make joint bids for certain contracts related to hospital equipment.

 

Global organisation

Every year, our products and services reach more than 100 million of people – a result made possible by our 160 employees located on three continents. Missionpharma is headquartered in Denmark and has subsidiaries, affiliates and regional offices in Denmark, India, China and Zambia and local representatives all over the world.

We believe that only by working together we can succeed in making a positive impact on global health. Through dedication, teamwork and mutual respect for each other’s strengths, we succeed in living our purpose – despite being physically located far from each other.

View our Group structure

Missionpharma – a global organisation

Every day we focus on bridging the geographical distances between our companies by ensuring consistency in everything we do. We continuously strive to harmonise all working processes as well as the quality of services we provide, and we put a lot of focus on developing a working environment that allows an understanding of each other’s cultural differences.

Our subsidiaries in India and China play a vital role in supporting the development of our Indian and Chinese manufacturers. By having our own organisations physically based in the countries, we secure close contact with manufacturers and ensure the ability to provide a fast and action-oriented approach to challenges.

History

Missionpharma has a proud history going back to 70s, where the company was founded by the late Poul Ginnerup; a Danish entrepreneur with a dream about increasing access to safe and affordable generic pharmaceuticals worldwide.

At that time, there was an increasing trend towards generic pharmaceuticals in Africa, and Poul decided to focus intensively on this segment. The missionary clinics constituted the entire public health sector in Africa, which is the primary reason for our company name.

Africa has been in our DNA since the very beginning – and the continent still has big place in our hearts.

 

A proud history
1975: Missionpharma was founded by the late Poul Ginnerup as a one-man company with focus on supply of generic pharmaceuticals to the missionary clinics in Africa.
1980: Missionpharma has a strong commitment towards relief aid.
1989: Poul Ginnerup dies and Poul’s son, Kim Ginnerup, joins the management team.
1997: Our first office in India is established with primary focus on QA/QC and logistics services.
2001: Missionpharma establishes our kit packing unit in India, Missionpharma Logistics India, with complete storage, consolidation and kit packing facilities.
2007: Establishment of our Procurement and QA office in Shanghai, China.
2008: Missionpharma A/S is ISO 9001 certified by Bureau Veritas.
2010: Increasing physical presence on the African continent.
2012: Eurapharma (now CFAO Healthcare), owned by the CFAO Group and Toyota Tsusho Corporation, enters as majority shareholder of Missionpharma.
2013: Missionpharma strategically separates Hospital Equipment as a dedicated business unit.
2015: Missionpharma Zambia Ltd. is founded.
2015: Missionpharma wins the Great Place to Work® title as the best Workplace in Denmark (Best Small Workplaces 2015).
2018: Christian Overgaard is appointed new CEO of Missionpharma.
2020: Missionpharma A/S is ISO 13485 certified by Bureau Veritas.
2021: Missionpharma A/S is ISO 14001 certified by Bureau Veritas.
2022: Missionpharma Logistics (India) Pvt. Ltd. is ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certified by Bureau Veritas.
2023: Our new warehouse in Kandla, India, is inaugurated, providing 30% additional capacity (totally 10,300 m³ and 8,250 pallet positions).

Management

Missionpharma’s Executive Management Team has an extensive global experience and is deeply passionate about delivering efficient, innovative and intelligent healthcare solutions to our clients.

We have a constant focus on ensuring that our company always delivers excellent customer experience in every touch point. This underlies everything we do.

Meet our Executive Management team below:

Christian Overgaard

Chief Executive Officer

Mads Bach Ljunggren

Chief Commercial Officer

Alexandre Vialatte

Chief Financial Officer

Helle Bak Sanden

Chief HR Officer

Lotte Graa Preskou

Executive Assistant

Purpose and Values

We believe that our purpose and our values tie us together as a company and drive us to keep aiming for making an impact.

OUR PURPOSE STATEMENT

On a mission for better health
We believe that access to safe and affordable healthcare is a human right. Since 1975 we have contributed to improving global health by supplying quality medicines and medical devices to people all over the world.

Missionpharma works according to the following company values:

We care
We care about people. We take responsibility and treat each other and the world around us with respect.

We are one
We succeed by working together as one – a diverse team of specialists. We are the sum of our collective experience.

We deliver impact
We are dedicated to making a difference. We work relentlessly to deliver solutions with impact.

Compliance

Missionpharma is committed to maintaining trust throughout our operations and to conducting business with integrity and high ethical standards with respect for applicable laws, regulations and internal policies.

Group Anti-Corruption Code of Conduct
Integrity is one of our core values. At Missionpharma, we are committed to upholding high business standards and promoting good business conduct globally in our interactions with customers, healthcare professionals, public officials, suppliers and other business partners.

Being a part of the CFAO Group, the Group’s Anti-Corruption Code of Conduct, backed by Missionpharma’s Business Ethics Policy, apply to all employees, partners and third parties, including customers and suppliers. The policies aim to strengthen the prevention of corruption risks and to promote ethics in our professional relationships.

Whistleblowing system
The Code of Conduct is supported by an online whistleblowing system, called Speak Up, available through CFAO’s website at any time (24/7/365).

The system provides all partners with a dedicated and fully confidential communication channel to report potential cases of non-compliance or breach of the rules set forth in our Code of Conduct.

The whistleblowing system is accessible from the following website: cfao.ethicspoint.com

 

Third party vetting programme
We do not tolerate any form of corruption or bribery. To mitigate the risk of unethical behaviour, we have implemented a documented vetting programme, which all business relations must pass through to ensure compliance with Missionpharma standards of integrity.

Partners are always screened for critical information on persons and entities and our local representatives go through a rigorous due diligence process and approval procedure.

Participant of the UN Global Compact
Missionpharma has been a participant of the UN Global Compact since 2018, and it is a natural consequence of our commitment to the Ten Principles to engage with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The goals are closely interlinked with our sustainability commitments for human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption.

Looking across the SDGs and underlying targets, Missionpharma touches, directly or indirectly, many of the goals. We have chosen to target our efforts towards specifically SDG 3, 8, 13 and 17 and the relevant sub-targets.

Goal 3, Good Health and Well-being, is by far the goal, where Missionpharma has the ability to significantly contribute to large-scale positive transformations, as this target directly relates to our focused efforts to improve access to safe healthcare globally.

In addition to Goal 3, we contribute particularly to Goal 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth, Goal 13: Climate action and Goal 17: Partnership for the Goals.

 

Download our latest Sustainability report

 

Read more about Missionpharma’s sustainability commitments

 

Gifts and Hospitality

Missionpharma has adopted a strict policy on gifts and hospitality, and as a principle, nothing of value can be offered, promised, given, requested, accepted, directly or indirectly, to or from a Third Party, under any circumstances, except for:

  • Gifts to or from Third Parties, provided that they are of very modest value, non-frequent and in direct relation with the professional activity of the receiving party. If the situation implies a potential conflict of interest, irrespectively of the value of the gift, Missionpharma’s staff cannot, under any circumstances, accept the gift (as an example, our Quality auditors cannot accept gifts from an audited supplier)
  • Modest hospitality if low value according to internal standards and in agreement with applicable laws and regulations, reasonable and with a legitimate business purpose, such as site visits or educational meetings. If the situation implies a potential conflict of interest, irrespectively of the value of the hospitality, Missionpharma’s staff cannot, under any circumstances, accept the hospitality.

Any gift in cash, whether offered, promised, given or received by an employee or a Third Party is strictly forbidden.

Relatives of the employee are considered as potentially being in a position to influence business decision of the relevant employee. Therefore, any gift received by such relatives from Third Parties must be disclosed as the ones directly received by the employee.

GIFTS INCLUDE
Anything of value such as cash or cash equivalents as well as products, vouchers, services, loans, pricing or other benefits granted as a mark of friendship or appreciation without expecting anything in return – including but not limited to gifts like wine, tickets, clothes, paintings, jewellery and cash.

Donations

One of Missionpharma’s sustainability targets is to constantly minimise the destruction levels of expired pharmaceuticals and medical consumables in order to contribute to rational drug use and reduce waste. Another sustainability target is to engage in CSR activities to support local communities, especially near home areas of our employees.

As a consequence, we are constantly optimising corporate stock keeping strategies to ensure minimum waste. In addition, we have recently entered into donation activities of soon-to-expire drugs – in addition to carefully selected CSR activities – for the benefit of our local societies as well as patients worldwide. Together with our partners, we coordinate all activities related to the donation and ensure that products unfold their maximum potential.

Donation of 25 cbm of life-saving essential medicine, corresponding to nearly 280,000 treatments, to the National Council of NGOs in Kenya.

 

Donation to Ukraine

To support the increasing humanitarian needs in Ukraine, Missionpharma has recently made a donation of 145,000 surgical sutures to the country. The sutures have reached Lviv and are being distributed to health facilities all over the country.

The world around us is constantly changing and with the ongoing war in Ukraine, humanitarian needs are multiplying and spreading by the hour.

Through our partnership with the Danish voluntary humanitarian organisation, Global Medical Aid (GMA), Missionpharma is supporting the people in Ukraine with a donation of 145,000 surgical sutures. Sutures constitute a critical function in any surgical procedure, and this donation enables the local health personnel to perform up to 30,000 operations.

The sutures are transported from the warehouse in our headquarters in Lynge to the Ministry of Health in Lviv, from where the sutures are distributed to central hospitals and mobile clinics all over Ukraine.

The Danish Emergency Management Agency (Beredskabsstyrelsen) has managed the coordination with the EU Civil Protection Mechanism. Together, we succeeded to obtain the Ukrainian approval to accept the donation and arrange for all practicalities in connection with the dispatch of the consignment.

By realising this donation, we contribute to saving the lives of the wounded soldiers and the civilian casualties suffering from the devastating consequences of the war. We are all very grateful for having the opportunity and possibility to make this donation of life-saving sutures.

Our thoughts are with all the people of Ukraine affected by this tragedy.

ABOUT OUR PARTNER, GLOBAL MEDICAL AID

Global Medical Aid (GMA) is a voluntary humanitarian organisation founded in 2010. GMA collects and distributes usable medicine and functional hospital equipment for the benefit of populations in developing countries in cooperation with private companies and public institutions.
Products are donated to a wide range of developing countries in cooperation with Ministries of Health and local NGOs. Through an extensive network in Eastern Europe, Africa and Southeast Asia, GMA coordinates and ensures that the donations unfold their maximum potential for the benefit of the patients.

Orthopedic surgeon, Finn Warburg, has more than 40 years’ experience with war surgery and has been working as staff surgeon with the Danish Emergency Management Agency for decades. He states:

“Effective surgery is impossible without sutures. The present situation in Ukraine has raised the need for life- and limb-saving surgery for victims of war and other critically ill patients. Lack of sutures in the hospitals would create life-threatening situations. The dispatchment of the great amount of sutures is a key function in support of the Ukrainians’ fight for their freedom.”

ABOUT SUTURES
Suturing is one of the most critical factors in a healthy recovery for surgery patients. Proper suturing is crucial for healing, infection prevention and in minimising scarring.

Absorbable sutures are sutures that naturally dissolve and are absorbed by the body as the wound heals. They are made of materials such as the fibers that line animal intestines or artificially created polymers that easily dissolve into the body. As absorbable sutures do not need to be removed by a doctor making them ideal for healing internal wounds. Absorbable sutures are commonly used for deep tissue operations, which can be hard to reach after the surgery.

Non-absorbable sutures are made of nylon or silk and provide good tensile strength with low tissue reactivity. Non-absorbable sutures are commonly used to suture facial wounds, where the cosmetic outcome is key, as the low reactivity is known to cause less scarring.

Donation to Kenya

Every day, more than 5 tonnes of medicine is destroyed in Denmark alone, most of which is still fully usable. In January 2022 Missionpharma dispatched 25 cbm of life-saving essential medicine, which equals around 280,000 treatments, to the National Council of NGOs in Kenya.

One of Missionpharma’s sustainability targets is to constantly minimise the destruction levels of expired pharmaceuticals in order to contribute to rational drug use and reduce waste. Therefore, we have recently entered into partnership with the voluntary humanitarian organisation, Global Medical Aid (GMA) which was founded in 2010.

GMA collects and distributes usable medicine and functional hospital equipment for the benefit of populations in developing countries in cooperation with private companies and public institutions. Products are donated to a wide range of developing countries in cooperation with Ministries of Health and local NGOs.

Through an extensive network in Eastern Europe, Africa and Southeast Asia, GMA coordinates and ensures that the donations unfold their maximum potential for the benefit of the patients.

Recently, Missionpharma, via GMA, donated not less than 130 different essential drugs and medical devices to the National Council of NGOs in Kenya; a donation of 25 cbm of life-saving essential medicine, corresponding to nearly 280,000 treatments, in addition to relevant medical devices to support the administration of drugs.

All products are quality-approved and have between 9 and 15 months remaining self-life at time of donation. Through our corporation with GMA, all products are donated to an organisation which ensures handling of the medicines by health professionals as well as use of products before date of expiry.

This donation is a consequence of our increasing focus on sustainability, directly supporting pharmaceutical recycling and more responsible use of resources. In particular, we support SDG 3 (Good health and well-being), SDG 12 (Responsible consumption and production) and SDG 13 (Climate action) through minimisation of waste.

Donation to Deaf & Dumb School in India

One of our objectives for 2021/22 was to engage in CSR activities in our local communities in India. This year, we have chosen to support the Mata Laxmi Rotary Institute for Speech and Hearing Handicapped (Deaf & Dumb School) located in Adipur, Gandhidham region of Gujarat state in western India.

The Deaf & Dumb School was established in 1985 and provides free education, teaching material and transportation for its 65 students from 1st to 8th grade.

The school is equipped with 15 classrooms, a playground, indoor games area, a library and a computer-aided learning lab.

Missionpharma supports all 65 students with uniforms, shoes and school bags as well as solar power installations for their water purification system in order to provide safe and clean drinking water to the school children in a sustainable manner.

Donation ceremony at the Mata Laxmi Rotary Institute for Speech and Hearing Handicapped (Deaf & Dumb School) located in Adipur, Gandhidham region of Gujarat state in western India. Missionpharma donated uniforms, shoes and school bags for all 65 students.

The donated solar power installations to the Mata Laxmi Rotary Institute for Speech and Hearing Handicapped were inaugurated by Missionpharma’s CEO, Christian Overgaard, in Spring 2022.