Members of the presidential press corps with Prof Frimpong Boateng and other officials after the workshop
Kwabena Frimpong Boateng, Chairman of the Presidential Vaccine Manufacturing Committee, says Ghana will need $200 million to fully manufacture COVID-19 vaccines in Ghana.
Addressing members of the Presidential Press Corps in Accra last week, Prof Frimpong Boateng, who disclosed that the project would be a private-public partnership arrangement, said that would ensure that all stakeholders are involved.
He added that some local pharmaceutical companies were already on board to ensure that the process in getting the project underway commenced.
“The consortium of three pharmaceutical companies, DANADAMS, Ernest Chemists and Kinapharma, has gone ahead to pay a deposit for a plant so that we can produce the vaccine in Ghana. But if we want to do that, you have to order the equipment. But if you place an order, it takes 14 months before it is delivered. The installation, tech-transfer, bulk supply of vaccines from elsewhere will take about two years,” he explained.
He further explained that, as at now, a manufacturing plant had been identified through the help of some partners from Germany, adding that efforts were being made to ensure that the plant arrives in the country by the end of the year.
He stated that, with the mandate of the committee being very short, “by the end of the year, we should get the institute running and then other people will take over the work we are doing and establish the institute and let it run. I don’t think most of us will be part of the new team that is coming.”
Prof Frimpong Boateng stressed that in order to keep the institution running when another government takes over, the committee is under the office of the President.
National Vaccine Institute
The government of Ghana is set to invest some US$25 million as seed money towards the establishment of a national vaccine institute to spearhead the country’s efforts at producing vaccines locally.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo disclosed this during his 26th update on measures taken by the government to reduce the rising cases of COVID-19 in the country.
He pointed out that the establishment of the institute forms part of recommendations by a committee established by the government to formulate a concrete plan for vaccine development and manufacturing in Ghana.
