Ghana has taken another step towards strengthening local pharmaceutical production with the award of eight grants worth a combined €2 million to support the development of medicines, vaccines and health technologies.
The grants, awarded under the PharmaVax Ghana programme, are designed to deepen collaboration between Ghanaian research institutions and pharmaceutical manufacturers and help move scientific innovations from laboratories into commercial health products.
The programme is jointly funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the European Union (EU), with the projects selected through a competitive Call for Proposals organised by the National Vaccine Institute (NVI) and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).
The selected projects cover a wide range of health innovations, including child-friendly malaria medicines, herbal treatments for chronic diseases, vaccine production and the use of artificial intelligence to accelerate the discovery of antibodies for malaria and Mpox.
The Ghanaian project partners are also contributing €425,000 towards implementation, demonstrating local commitment to advancing pharmaceutical research and manufacturing.
Beyond the funding, beneficiaries will receive technical assistance, networking opportunities and knowledge-sharing support aimed at strengthening research capacity and improving the prospects of commercialising locally developed products.
The grants were presented at a “Research Meets Manufacturing” Award Ceremony jointly organised by the NVI and GIZ under the PharmaVax Ghana Programme.
Speaking at the event, Minister of Health Kwabena Mintah Akandoh said the initiative marked the beginning of a partnership that would bring researchers, manufacturers, government and international partners together to turn scientific discoveries into medicines and vaccines.
Chief Executive Officer of the NVI, Dr Sodzi Sodzi-Tettey, said Ghana possessed the scientific expertise and growing pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity needed to develop health solutions tailored to its own priorities.
He stressed that connecting research institutions with local manufacturers would create opportunities for medicines and vaccines to be developed and manufactured in Ghana for both domestic and regional markets.
Among the beneficiaries is the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), in partnership with Aspee Pharmaceuticals Limited and the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission, which received €300,000 to optimise a locally developed herbal pain medicine for sustainable large-scale production. The partners will contribute an additional €150,000.
The University of Cape Coast, working with Kash Chemist Limited, received €100,000 to develop a fast-dissolving oral malaria tablet for children, with an additional €10,000 contribution from the partners.
The Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research at the University of Ghana, in partnership with Atlantic Lifesciences Limited, secured €500,000 to generate stability data needed to support regulatory approval and strengthen local production of tetanus-diphtheria vaccines and tetanus antitoxin. The project partners will contribute €47,000.
The CSIR-Water Research Institute and Kantanka Herbal Pharmaceuticals and Research Centre Limited received €125,000 to generate scientific evidence on herbal treatments for alcohol-related liver disease and support their scale-up for local manufacturing.
The Centre for Plant Medicine Research, together with the Dodowa Health Research Centre and Atlantic Lifesciences Limited, will implement two projects supported by €340,000. The projects will assess a locally developed herbal product for prostate health through clinical trials and generate stability data for a locally produced snake venom antiserum with an extended shelf life.
Another €300,000 grant was awarded to the West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens at the University of Ghana, in collaboration with DEK Vaccines Limited, mPharma Health AI Labs Limited and INCAS Diagnostics and Services Limited.
That project will deploy a Ghanaian artificial intelligence platform to design and scale up monoclonal antibodies and diagnostics for Mpox and malaria while strengthening local manufacturing capacity. The partners will contribute €40,000.
Central University, in partnership with Ernest Chemists Limited, received €250,000 to develop and validate a standardised herbal treatment for hypertension, with the university and its partner contributing €30,000.
The selection process followed an assessment of 43 proposals by an independent nine-member committee of Ghanaian experts. The proposals were evaluated on technical merit, public benefit, participation of a local manufacturer and the long-term sustainability of the research and development activities.
The PharmaVax Ghana programme is expected to help create a stronger link between Ghana’s research institutions, pharmaceutical industry and public sector, while supporting the country’s broader ambition to build a resilient pharmaceutical sector and strengthen national health security.
The initiative also positions local vaccine and medicine manufacturing as a potential driver of industrial development, innovation and economic growth.
