We have to be self-sufficient in production of vaccines - Kwaku Agyeman Manu

The Health Minister, Kwaku Agyemang-Manu, has revealed that the Global Alliance for Vaccine and Immunization will soon remove Ghana from its list of beneficiaries.

The Minister indicated that the GAVI initiative would not supply Ghana with free vaccines following its attainment of lower middle-income status.

The Minister was speaking at the commissioning of a new office complex of the Ghana Vaccine Institute in Accra.

He said Ghana needs to be self-sufficient in the production of vaccines.

GAVI, or the Vaccine Alliance, is an independent public-private partnership and multilateral finance structure that aims at increasing worldwide access to the use of vaccines, particularly among vulnerable children.

“While the GAVI alliance support is about 80 percent of Ghana’s vaccine, our attainment of a lower middle-income status means we will have to transition from GAVI support by the year 2027.”

President Akufo-Addo, on Wednesday, commissioned the building, which will serve as the home of the National Vaccine Institute.

President on February 28, 2021, set up the Vaccine Manufacturing Committee, which, by Act of Parliament, has now been transformed into the National Vaccine Institute, to which we have committed twenty-five million dollars ($25 million) in the vaccine production enterprise, initially, to coordinate and facilitate the capacity of domestic pharmaceutical companies to fill, finish and package mRNA COVID-19, malaria and tuberculosis vaccines, and, ultimately, to manufacture them here in Ghana.

Before commissioning the Secretariat, the President inaugurated the Governing Board of the Institute. It is chaired by Dr. Anarfi Asamoa-Baah, and has Prof. William Ampofo, Dr. Baffuor Awuah, Mr. Mustapha Tawiah Kumah, Dr. Daniel Gyingiri Achel, Ms Frederica Sala Illiasu, Dr. Delese Darko, Prof. Alex Dodoo, Dr. Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, Mr. Kofi Nsiah-Poku, Prof. Kofi Opoku Nti, Prof. Gordon A. Awandare, and Prof. Rita Akosua Dickson as Members.