Eight research and development partnerships between Ghanaian institutions and pharmaceutical companies have been awarded a combined €2 million in grants under the PharmaVax Ghana programme.
The grants were presented at the “Research Meets Manufacturing” Award Ceremony held in Accra on the 19th of August, co-hosted by the National Vaccine Institute and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit, GIZ. The programme is jointly funded by Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and the European Union.
The funded projects span a wide range of health innovations from child-friendly malaria medicines and plant-based treatments for chronic diseases, to the use of artificial intelligence in accelerating antibody discovery for malaria and Mpox. Ghanaian partners are contributing an additional €425,000 towards implementing the projects.
The eight winning projects were selected from 43 proposals by an independent committee of nine Ghanaian experts, based on technical merit, public benefit, involvement of a local manufacturer, and long-term sustainability.
Among the institutions receiving funding are the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, the University of Cape Coast, the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research’s Water Research Institute, the Centre for Plant Medicine Research, the West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens, and Central University each partnering with local pharmaceutical manufacturers.
Speaking at the ceremony, Minister of Health Hon. Kwabena Mintah Akandoh described the initiative as the beginning of a journey bringing researchers, manufacturers, government and international partners together to turn scientific discoveries into life-saving medicines and vaccines.
Chief Executive Officer of the National Vaccine Institute, Dr. Sodzi Sodzi-Tettey, said Ghana has the scientific talent and industrial capacity to develop health solutions made, manufactured, and potentially exported from Ghana to benefit the wider region.
The ceremony was attended by dignitaries including the Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to Ghana, H.E. Frederik Landshöft, and the European Union Delegation’s Chargé d’affaires, Mr. Jonas Cleas.
The grants form part of Ghana’s broader strategy to build a resilient pharmaceutical sector and strengthen local vaccine and medicine manufacturing capacity.
