"Too often life-saving innovations do not reach a global scale because they lack a long-term champion, a commercialization platform and a market-based mechanism for reaching the last mile"
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (PRWEB) September 25, 2019
During the 74th United Nations General Assembly, Maternova (maternova.net)—a global women’s health solutions company— is announcing its win in the Gender Equality category of the international Katerva Awards for Sustainability. The Katerva Awards are the pinnacle of global sustainability recognition. Through them, the best ideas on the planet are identified, refined and accelerated toward impact at a global level.
Maternova Inc. developed the first trusted commercial platform for innovations in obstetrics, reproductive health, child and neonatal health. The company began with a single product offering and expanded to 40 innovations to save women and newborns—to date, impacting over 500,000 lives.
Each time a hemorrhage, infection or severe eclampsia is prevented, a mother lives to see her newest child, and her other children grow to adulthood. And that mother contributes economically to her household, her community and her country. Each Maternova innovation is rigorously tested for its potential to change the odds for mother and for their families.
Maternova’s initial business model has expanded to include proprietary products, like Novaveil, a revolutionary textile to repel insects in malaria-endemic countries around the world, and a suite of licensed intellectual property.
The women-founded, woman-owned company’s CEO, Prakash Veenam, states that, “Too often life-saving innovations do not reach scale because they lack a long-term champion, a commercialization platform and a market-based mechanism for reaching the last mile. To Maternova, marketing and distribution of medical devices and diagnostics are in our DNA—we see tremendous human need and a large market opportunity.”
Dr. Bettina von Stamm, Director of the Katerva Awards writes, “It is initiatives like (Maternova) that I love: helping accelerate great solutions we already have and making them available where they are needed while also developing solutions where gaps exist; working through partnerships rather than wanting to do it all alone, while investing in people, research and education.”
The Katerva Awards receive thousands of nominations each year, sourced by a global network of ‘spotters.’ The Selection Committee vets the submissions, ultimately choosing a category award winner. More than 400 specialists in specific subjects areas carry out the rigorous 10-month-long adjudication process to evaluate the practical, strategic, scientific, social and commercial value of the endeavors. The implications the projects have for policy are also closely considered.
Dr. M A Apple, CEO & President Emeritus of the Council of Scientific Society Presidents states the Selection Committee’s rationale for awarding this honor to Maternova, saying, “Investment in women's health has been inadequate and insufficient for decades. Maternova accelerates access to life-saving innovation by educating, marketing, distributing and evaluating...It is an honor to join the worldwide acclamation of Maternova's growing potential to uplift the world.”
UNICEF estimates 2.8 million pregnant women and newborns die every year, or 1 every 11 seconds, mostly of preventable causes.
“Why is all of this important to me?” continued Katerva Awards’ Director, Dr. von Stamm, "If we ever want to move closer towards sustainability we need more initiatives that are driven by an overarching goal that is focused on the greater good, not initiatives that are driven by ego, greed or the desire to control."
Maternova Inc. is honored to have their decade of work and impact recognized in this prestigious award. The vote of confidence given by the esteemed Katerva Awards Selection Committee gives Maternova, a social enterprise funded by impact investors, the impetus to continue its work rapidly scaling innovations and increasing investments in licensing the most promising medical devices, nutrition innovations and diagnostics with the potential to have widespread impact on public health. The focus remains on accelerating access to affordable, proven technologies that save women and children.
About Maternova:
Maternova Inc. is a women’s health solutions company headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island in the United States. This social enterprise identifies, tests and markets innovations in maternal, newborn and child health across the world. Its customers and partners are hospitals, governments, humanitarian organizations and clinics that procure medical devices and diagnostics, as well as nutritional products for the most vulnerable populations of mothers and newborns. Maternova.net; maternova.co (Spanish site).
About the Katerva Awards
Katerva's mission is to identify, evaluate & accelerate game-changing innovation. The Katerva Awards are the pinnacle of global sustainability recognition. Katerva uses the power of technology to engage a global network of experts who help us find the most interesting innovations on the planet—the best ideas you have never heard of. Katerva has over 1200 in our formal network of spotters and panelists. To scale to a much wider community Katerva is developing web and mobile platforms that will bring the power of social engagement to unprecedented levels, using the “crowd” to exponentially grow the pipeline of great innovations, innovators and young companies.
