Bright Simons built mPedigree so that anyone could check a medicine with a text message.
A Ghanaian technologist who studied astrophysics, Bright Simons founded mPedigree to help people verify products and expose counterfeit medicines.
Bright Simons was student council president at Presbyterian Boys’ Senior High School in Legon, Greater Accra, and later won a scholarship to study astrophysics at Durham University in the United Kingdom.
A label you can check
He is the founder and president of mPedigree, a social enterprise known for exposing makers and distributors of counterfeit medicines. It created a computer programme called Goldkeys that lets people verify certain products in some countries. The idea is simple: a code on the pack, a text message, and an answer.
Simons is also vice-president of research at the IMANI Centre for Policy and Education, and writes for outlets such as the Harvard Business Review’s digital edition and African Arguments.
Recognition
He was a TED Fellow in 2009 and a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader in 2012. MIT Technology Review named him one of its top 35 innovators under 35 in 2013, and in 2016 Fortune listed him among the world’s 50 greatest leaders.
mPedigree took its approach from Africa to India and China, a reminder that a solution built for a local problem can travel far.
