GHANA—President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of Ghana has inaugurated the new state-of-the-art office for the National Vaccine Institute (NVI) in Accra.
This facility will serve as the headquarters for the institute’s governing board, which has been assigned the crucial task of steering the country towards vaccine self-reliance.
The NVI will be responsible for maintaining the facility, which will serve as a central coordination center for all activities related to vaccine development and manufacturing.
Dr. Anarfi Asamoa-Baah will serve as the chairman of the new governing board, leading a team that includes Prof. William Ampofo, Dr. Baffuor Awuah, Mustapha Tawiah Kumah, Dr. Daniel Gyingiri Achel, and Ms. Frederica Sala Illiasu.
The institute’s other members will also comprise Dr. Delese Darko, Prof. Alex Dodoo, Dr. Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, Kofi Nsiah-Poku, Prof. Kofi Opoku Nti, Prof. Gordon A. Awandare, and Prof. Rita Akosua Dickson.
This is a culmination of the efforts and recommendations provided by the Ghanaian Presidential Committee on Vaccine Development and Production under the chairmanship of Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng.
The committee was set up in February 2021 and was tasked with understanding how the country could chart a better way forward in vaccine development and manufacturing locally.
The committee has now been transformed into the National Vaccine Institute by an Act of Parliament and has a broader but more focused mandate with several projects in the pipeline already.
The NVI mandate is to coordinate and facilitate the capacity of DEKS Vaccines Ltd and other domestic pharmaceutical companies to fill, finish, and package mRNA COVID-19 and other vaccines such as those against malaria and tuberculosis.
In the short term of two years, DEKs Vaccines Ltd will fill, finish, and package COVID-19 and the other vaccines for those against malaria and tuberculosis.
In the medium term, that is in five years, the target is to continue the establishment of more domestic vaccine manufacturing plants in the country to manufacture vaccines to meet the World Health Organisation (WHO) GMP standards.
The long-term target is to produce a candidate vaccine using innovative technologies that will pass the WHO prequalification program.
The Institute has been given US$25 million through the European Investment Bank to coordinate and facilitate the capacity of domestic pharmaceutical companies to fill, finish, and package mRNA COVID-19, malaria, and tuberculosis vaccines.
In a statement delivered during the commissioning ceremony, President Akufo-Addo highlighted his government’s determination to ensure that Ghana is never again a victim or a pawn of the international vaccine order.
He went on to explain that vaccine nationalism played out by the developed world during the COVID-19 pandemic was a wake-up call for Ghana to take its destiny into its own hands.
While congratulating the Committee, which is now turned into the National Vaccine Authority, President Akufo-Addo listed some noteworthy achievements of the Committee.
They include the development of a roadmap for vaccine development and manufacturing in Ghana; support of the upgrade of Laboratory facilities of the Food and Drugs Authority; international collaboration with Rwanda, Senegal, and the mRNA in Vaccine Technology Company, BioNTech SE, Germany.
Other achievements are the establishment of a Local vaccine manufacturing plant by Atlantic Lifesciences, commissioned in April 2022, and the commencement of DEKs Vaccines Limited and the setting up of the National Vaccines Institute and its Secretariat.
President Akufo-Addo assured the Board of his full support to undertake all that was required to make Ghana a vaccine manufacturing hub not only in West Africa but also in the entire African continent.
The lack of a sustained supply of vaccines to fight against diseases in the country informed the establishment of the National Vaccine Institute.
Ghana established the Expanded Program on Immunisation (EPI) in 1978, afterwards, the program received substantial and technical support from GAVI, the vaccine alliance.
Currently, GAVI supports over 89% of the cost of vaccines and vaccine delivery within the country.
However, Ghana has attained the lower middle-income country status and must transit from GAVI’s support by 2027.
Consequently, Ghana must be self-reliant, especially in the domestic development and manufacturing of vaccines locally.
The establishment of the National Vaccine Institute is expected to operationalize the government’s vision of securing much-needed vaccines through domestic development and manufacturing in the short and medium-long-term phases
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