National Vaccine Institute 95% complete - Dr. Nsiah-Asare

The National Vaccine Institute is about 95 percent complete and will be operational by 2023 to facilitate and coordinate all activities of vaccine production and manufacturing in Ghana.

Dr Anthony Nsiah- Asare, Presidential Advisor on Health, said an act of Parliament to support and put the Institute in place would also be passed this week.

He was speaking at the launch meeting of the DEK vaccine project in Accra on Monday.

“We will have a national vaccine institute secretariat and by next year January, we will start putting in the necessary personnel. We have started training and we are working together with the private sector for a robust Institute,” he said.

Dr Nsiah- Asare said GAVI was reshaping its markets to ensure that it purchased 30 per cent of vaccines produced in Africa.

Dr Kofi Nsiah- Poku, Managing Director of DEK Limited, who was speaking at the meeting, said DEK would require an investment of $122.6 million to begin the manufacturing of vaccines in Ghana by mid-2023.

DEK vaccines Limited is a composition of three private local pharmaceutical companies; Danadams, Ernest Chemist and Kinapharma.

Dr Nsiah-Poku said the project would be funded by the International Finance Corporation of the World Bank Group.

He said by mid- 2024 the first batch of local vaccines for Malaria, Meningococcal and COVID-19 would be produced to realise the health security returns for Africa.

He said the project would within a period of three years produce 13 existing vaccines in Ghana.