The PharmaVax Ghana programme has awarded eight grants to support innovative partnerships between Ghanaian research institutions and pharmaceutical companies working together in vaccine and pharmaceutical research and development.
They range from developing child-friendly malaria medicines and plant-based therapies for chronic diseases to applying artificial intelligence (AI) to accelerate antibody discovery for malaria and Mpox.
Valued at €2 million, the grants and complementary technical assistance are to help researchers and manufacturers to translate scientific discoveries into practical health solutions for the local and regional market.
Ghanaian partners are contributing an additional €425,000 towards the implementation of their projects, demonstrating their commitment to advancing locally driven health innovation.
The funded projects reflect the breadth of Ghana's growing research and innovation landscape.
The grants were presented during the “Research Meets Manufacturing” Award Ceremony last Wednesday night.
The event was co-hosted by the National Vaccine Institute (NVI) and the German international development cooperation, GIZ, under the PharmaVax Ghana Programme.
The initiative is jointly funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the European Union (EU).
Stronger research-manufacturing collaboration
The Minister of Health, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, commended the EU, GIZ and the NVI for supporting efforts to bridge the gap between scientific research and local pharmaceutical manufacturing.
He said such partnerships were critical to strengthening the country’s health security, reducing dependence on imported medicines and vaccines and creating jobs.
More than grants
Mr Akandoh said the ceremony, which had brought together the government, academia, industry and development partners, was “more than the award of grants”, describing it as a deliberate effort to close the gap between the laboratory and the production line.
“Scientific discovery achieves its full value only when it is developed, validated, manufactured at scale, and made accessible to the people who need it,” he said.
The Minister of Health said recent global health emergencies and disruptions to international supply chains had demonstrated that local pharmaceutical production was no longer merely an industrial aspiration but a national health security imperative.
“Health sovereignty is not isolation; we need partnership, but partnership with dignity and respect,” Mr Akandoh said.
He said the government was committed to strengthening the entire pharmaceutical innovation ecosystem through research funding, regulation, technology transfer, skilled human resources, financing and procurement arrangements that would create a predictable pathway to market locally manufactured products.
Collaboration
The General Manager of Entrance Pharmaceuticals and Research Centre, Dr Evelyn Biriwaa Ofei, who was the keynote speaker, said academic and industrial collaboration was essential to converting research into products that could improve public health and contribute to national development.
Speaking on the theme: “The Importance of Academic and Industrial Collaboration as a Driving Force for National Development”, she said scientific discovery was only the beginning of innovation.
“A research publication may advance knowledge, but when the same discovery is translated into a safe, effective and quality-assured medicine manufactured here in Ghana, it advances something far greater,” she said.
Dr Ofei outlined five guiding principles for effective collaboration: co-designing research from the beginning, sharing risks and rewards, promoting bilateral learning, aligning research with national priorities and measuring success through impact.
She said researchers should consider manufacturability, availability of raw materials, regulatory requirements and affordability from the beginning of a project rather than after research had been completed.
She also called for stronger intellectual property protection and technology transfer mechanisms, while encouraging industry experts to work with universities and academics to spend time in manufacturing facilities.
Partnerships
The German Ambassador to Ghana, Frederik Landshöft, said the initiative demonstrated the growing partnership between Ghana and Germany in research, technology, investment and manufacturing.
He said 43 proposals had been submitted and eight projects selected by nine Ghanaian experts.
Mr Landshöft said the partnership could help Ghana move from scientific discovery to products manufactured locally and eventually exported across West Africa.
“Made in Ghana, for Ghana and from Ghana to West Africa,” he said.
The Chargé d’affaires and Head of Political Section of the EU Delegation to Ghana, Jonas Claes, congratulated the awarded institutions and said the grants came with the responsibility of improving Ghana’s manufacturing capacity and the health of future generations.
He said the EU and Ghana shared a commitment to research-based policymaking and remained committed to strengthening Ghana’s capacity for local research, innovation and manufacturing.
Awardees
The awardees included the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, in partnership with Aspee Pharmaceuticals Ltd and the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission; the University of Cape Coast and Kash Chemist Ltd, and the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research and Atlantic Lifesciences Ltd.
Others were the CSIR-Water Research Institute and Kantanka Herbal Pharmaceuticals and Research Centre Ltd; the Centre for Plant Medicine Research, in partnership with Dodowa Health Research Centre and Atlantic Lifesciences Ltd; the West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens at the University of Ghana, with DEK Vaccines Ltd, minoHealth AI Labs Ltd and INCAS Diagnostics & Services Ltd; and Central University in partnership with Ernest Chemists Ltd.
The eight projects are expected to help translate Ghanaian research and innovation into locally manufactured health products and strengthen the country’s pharmaceutical sector.
