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Prof. Frimpong Boateng (right), Head of the Presidential Vaccine Manufacturing Committee, speaking at the workshop in Accra |
A collaboration of three local pharmaceutical businesses has obtained a factory to manufacture the COVID-19 vaccine.
The facility is slated to arrive in the country before the end of the year, with production beginning the next year.
The government is assisting Danadams, Ernest Chemists, and Kinapharma in producing COVID-19 vaccines in the country through a private-led project called DEK Vaccines Limited.
Prof. Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, chair of the Vaccine Production Committee, said last Friday at a stakeholder dialogue between the committee and the Presidential Press Corps that the action was part of a short-term solution to vaccinate the people against the deadly COVID-19 virus.
He stated that the DEK group would follow all international standards and packaging (fill and finish) processes for the vaccine manufacture in Ghana.
According to the chairman of the Vaccine Committee (DEK), Ghana could make its first vaccine under license next year. Currently, Ghana imports 99 percent of all vaccines, including those for children under the age of five, from other countries. In the short to medium term, the strategy is to reverse the trend.
Ghana is considering establishing a National Vaccine Institute to manage activities such as research and development, finance, standards control, and local vaccine manufacture. Prof. Frimpong-Boateng stated that Ghana will get ingredients from existing manufacturing companies and will make the vaccine domestically using stringent processes and procedures.
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