Vaccine and medicine safety in Africa: Ghana provides leadership
The second African Society of Pharmacovigilance (ASoP) Conference was held from November 25 – 27, 2015, in Accra on the theme: “Pharmacovigilance in Africa: New Methods, New Challenges, New opportunities.”
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Ghana was selected to host the event in view of its remarkable leadership in the safety of medicines and vaccines. Indeed, currently, the Chairperson of the Global Vaccine Safety Initiative is a Ghanaian (Prof. Alex Dodoo), and Ghanaians are well represented on several WHO and UN boards dealing with the safety and effectiveness of medicines and vaccines.
Ghanaians are also actively involved in international health policies, especially in areas such as malaria (Prof. Fred Binka), influenza (Prof. William Ampofo) and neglected tropical diseases (Prof. John Gyapong), to name but a few.
The conference
During this well-attended conference, the experience of the Ebola outbreak and other public health issues made it imperative for African countries to develop robust systems to ensure the safety and efficacy of all medicines and vaccines that are used in their populations.
Africa is a continent endowed with riches. What is lacking is the development of an African-centred approach towards the problems of the day. We have the knowledge, we have the skills and we know the tools; what we need is to work together as Africans for Africa and in Africa.
ASoP 2015 discussed the challenges facing pharmacovigilance in Africa and explored new methods and opportunities for enhancing pharmacovigilance on the continent.
Participation was open to all with an interest in pharmacovigilance, medicine and vaccine safety in Africa from both the public and private sectors, including the pharmaceutical industry, technical agencies, national regulatory authorities, donors, ministries of health, and individuals, both in Africa and beyond.
Interestingly, there was heavy participation from several leading international pharmacovigilance (PV) experts, including from the European Medicines Agency (Dr June Raine and Dr Priya Bahri), the World Bank (Dr Apollo Muhairwe) and the USAID-funded Systems for Improving Access to Pharmaceuticals and Services (SIAPS), which is managed by Management Sciences for Health, USA, (Dr Francis Aboagye-Nyame).
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The meeting was organised by the African Collaborating Centre for Pharmacovigilance, the WHO Collaborating Centre for Advocacy and Training in Pharmacovigilance (WHO-CC), University of Ghana, in conjunction with the Food and Drugs Authority of Ghana.
It was supported by the WHO, the Uppsala Monitoring Centre, USAID-SIAPS, Bayer, Pfizer, Medicines for Malaria Venture, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Quintiles and Celgene.
Development partners, including the WHO, the World Bank, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Uppsala Monitoring Centre, ECOWAS, the West African Health Organisation and the East African Community, took part in the conference.
More than 300 people from Africa and beyond participated in the conference. It was an intensely intellectual meeting, with extensive discussions on how experts in Africa can use new tools, methods and communication approaches to improve, both individual and public health. It also provided a platform for networking with industry leaders, PV and several categories of health professionals.
Main Speakers
The Speakers at the conference were Prof. Alex Dodoo, Director, WHO-CC and Chairman of the Global Vaccine Safety Initiative, who delivered the Opening Plenary Address. Dr Victor Bampoe, Deputy Minister of Health, officially opened the conference after there had been speeches from Prof. Rachida Soulaymani-Bencheick, Director, WHO-CC for PV-Rabat, Morocco and President of ASoP.
Dr Bampoe hailed the nation for establishing the first PV centre in the West African sub-region.
He said that move by Ghana in 2001 had led to a number of countries in Africa establishing PV centres, due directly to interventions from Ghana.
Dr Bampoe suggested the need for Africa to develop robust systems to ensure the safety of drugs, vaccines and blood products.
He said the reliance of Africa on the safety data of drugs and vaccines of the advanced countries was no longer feasible, since the records would not be available on diseases such as Ebola and malaria; hence, the need for the continent to take the lead to make the information available, especially on new vaccines.
Professor Dodoo, called for innovative means to facilitate efforts towards quality monitoring and regulation of drugs.
He said the systems to ensure drug safety in Africa were not fully functional; hence, the under-reporting of adverse effects of medicines.
Prof. Dodoo said 35 countries in Africa had joined the WHO efforts towards PV by establishing national centres to facilitate the process.
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He lauded the efforts of the University of Nairobi, Kenya, for introducing MSc in PV, and expressed the need for Ghana to emulate the example.
Prof. Rachida Soulaymani- Bencheick, President of ASoP, said the body was created in Rabat, Morocco, to facilitate discourse, networking and sharing of research findings in PV.
Mr Kofi Aboagye-Nyame, Programme Director of Systems of Improved Access to Pharmaceutical Services/USAID, expressed the need for more efforts to ensure the quality and safety of drugs, adding that for the past 15 years, the USAID had worked to strengthen PV.
Closing ceremony
The closing ceremony was performed by Dr Anarfi Asamoah-Baah, former Director of Medical Services, Ghana, and now the Deputy Director-General of the WHO.
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Dr Asamoah-Baah, lauded Professor Dodoo, Director of WHO-CC, Accra, and Ms Haagar Hilda Ampadu, Deputy Director of the body and President of the Local Organising Committee, for a good job done.
He expressed the need for collaborative efforts to demystify PV and make it a ‘sexy’ issue, to attract the attention of the public and donors alike.
He, therefore, called for stakeholder involvement on PV, including the media and people from other disciplines.
Dr Asamoah-Baah said PV was created due to a reaction to a crisis situation, and so far progress had been made in promoting the cause. There was, however, the need to integrate PV fully into health care in Africa, as is done in industrialised countries. He pledged the support of WHO towards this.
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Prof. Rachida Soulaymani-Bencheick, President of ASoP, said the numerous presentations and deliberations at the confab facilitated the essence of PV; hence, the need for coordinated action in Africa to promote the drive.
Mrs Martha Gyansa-Lutterodt, Ghana’s Chief Pharmacist and Director of Pharmaceutical Services, observed that safety should be the requirements of all drugs.
She, therefore, called for sustainable systems to help address issues of PV, to ensure that the regulatory authorities are not relegated to the background.
The author, Ms Haagar Hilda Ampadu, is the Deputy Director of WHO-CC, Accra, and President of the Local Organising Committee.