President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said Ghana will start commercial vaccine production in January 2024.
Delivering a message on the State of the Nation in Parliament on March 30, 2022, President Akufo-Addo said government has instituted a comprehensive strategy to produce vaccines domestically.
That, he noted, government was going to establish the National Vaccine Institute to implement government’s domestic vaccine production strategy.
He explained that the establishment of the National Vaccine Institute will help the country to start the first phase of its domestic vaccine production in January 2024.
President Akufo-Addo said a Bill will soon be sent to Parliament for approval to aid the establishment of the National Vaccine Institute.
Ghana and two sister African states, Senegal and Rwanda are working on building a pan African project where initially the fill and finish plant will be located in Ghana.
Ghana, Rwanda and Senegal are partnering with German biotechnology company, BioNTech SE, to fill, finish, and package BioNTech mRNA vaccines in Africa, as a first step in the chain of domestic vaccine production which will help improve vaccine supply in Africa.
BioNtech of Germany, a health and technology company which now works with Pfizer, has agreed to partner and will contribute to the construction if a modern production facility for other vaccines such as those for malaria and tuberculosis in Ghana.
Source: Graphiconline
