President Cuts Sod For Vaccine Plant

President Akufo-Addo on Tuesday cut the sod for the start of construction on a $122-million vaccine production plant in Ghana.

The project, which is a private arrangement led by DEK Vaccines Limited, will be Ghana’s first vaccine manufacturing plant when completed.

The plant, which will be located in Medie, near Nsawam, will be a “fill and finish” facility that will import components of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines and process, package, and distribute them throughout the West African region, as well as make malaria vaccines.

Speaking at the ceremony, President Akufo-Addo said the events surrounding the global manufacture and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines were a clear warning to African countries to rethink their vaccine manufacturing capabilities.

He stated that the developed world’s vaccine nationalism with the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines meant that Africans needed to take immediate, important steps to ensure that Africans were never again victims of the international vaccination order.

“It was imperative that we took our destiny into our own hands,” he said, adding that this prompted his government to adopt a specific plan of action for domestic vaccine development and manufacturing.

This is what prompted the founding of the National Vaccine Institute (NVI) in July 2021, which received $25 million in seed funding from the European Investment Bank (EIB), he said.

The National Vaccine Institute Bill, which the President accented to, was enacted by Parliament two months ago on February 14, 2023, and the Board of Directors is likely to be chosen soon.

The President stated that Ghana, together with Rwanda and Senegal, is venturing into vaccine manufacturing, and that the three nations are committed to becoming vaccine manufacturing hubs south of the Sahara.

“We want to achieve self-sufficiency in vaccine production to meet future national, regional and continental needs for health security. We shall not then in the future be at the mercy of vaccine nationalism and geopolitics,” he noted.

The Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) is also expected to establish a vaccine non-release system that will strengthen further research and development for vaccine production.

Among the vaccines that DEK will produce is the malaria vaccine, which has been licensed for use in Ghana.

Ghana, on March 28, 2023, became the first country to grant approval to the R21 malaria vaccine developed by Oxford University in the United Kingdom and manufactured by the Serum Institute of India to be used in Ghana.

The approval came after an extended sequence of reviews and additional peer reviews of the vaccine product development dossier’s non-clinical and clinical quality routes.

The R21 vaccine has been approved for use in the immunisation of children aged 5 months to 36 months.

Pledge

Dr Kofi Nsiah-Poku, Managing Director of DEK Vaccines Limited, stated that when completed, the plant will be capable of producing 600 million doses of various vaccines annually.

As a result, he stated that the consortium, which includes the Ghana government, the European Union, and DEK Vaccine, is committed to completing the plant by the end of 2024 in order for vaccine production to begin in 2025.

Dr Nsiah-Poku singled out two individuals for special mention, including Ambassador Sena Siaw Boateng, who is Ghana’s Ambassador to Belgium and doubles as Head of the Ghana Mission to the European Union (EU) and Gina Ama Blay, Ghana’s Ambassador to Germany and staff of the Mission for their immense role in working with the EU for the funding of the project.

He commended the German Development Cooperation, GIZ for continuous support, with the hope that they will continue to support till the completion of the project.

The British High Commissioner to Ghana, Harriet Thompson and the European Union (EU) Ambassador to Ghana, Irchad Razaaly, both graced the sod-cutting ceremony.