MAP International now reaches 92 countries with medicine and health training. It started with a single truck.
The Right Connection
J. Raymond Knighton was the first Executive Director of the Christian Medical Society. He became passionate about missionary doctors in remote parts of the world who lacked necessary medicines but had no way to get them.
Art Larson, an executive at Schering Drug Company, heard about Knighton's concern and saw an opportunity to put surplus pharmaceutical stock to good use. In 1954, a truck carrying 11 tons of pharmaceuticals from Schering arrived at Knighton's Chicago office. It was one of the earliest models of donated-medicine redistribution.
Matching Supply With Need
The insight was simple but powerful: pharmaceutical companies had surplus stock, and mission hospitals desperately needed it. Knighton built an organization around that match, creating supply chains that connected corporate donors with healthcare providers serving impoverished communities.
Today, MAP International provides approximately 290,000 patient treatments through clinics in underserved communities. Headquartered in Brunswick, Georgia, the organization continues the work Knighton started with that first truckload of medicine.
Learn more on our MAP International page.
