COVID-19: Ghana to inject $25M into local production of vaccines

Ghana could become one of West Africa’s vaccine manufacturing hub, as it injects $25million to “start this whole enterprise”, President Akufo-Addo has said.

“The global shortage of vaccines means that we must develop our capacity to produce out own vaccines domestically, and reduce our dependence on foreign supplies”, the President said while addressing the nation on Sunday night on the country’s COVID-19 status.

“We must be self-reliant in this regard in the future, and prepare ourselves better to deal with any such occurrences in the future”, Mr Akufo-Addo said as he announced the establishment of a National Vaccine Institute to spearhead this development.

Mandate

The establishment of the institute is contained in preliminary recommendations by the Professor Frimpong Boateng Committee set up to investigate Ghana’s potential as a vaccine producer.

The Institute, when established, will be charged with delivering six clear mandates.

1. Establishing local vaccine manufacturing plants

2. Deepening Research and Development (R&D) for vaccines in Ghana

3. Upgrading and strengthening the FDA

4. Forging bilateral and multilateral partnerships for vaccine manufacturing in various areas such as funding, clinical trials, technology transfer, licensing, and assignment intellectual property rights.

5. Building the human resource base for vaccine discovery

6. Development, and manufacture and establishing a permanent national secretariat to coordinate vaccine development and manufacture.

SOURCE: DAILY MAIL GH

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