The Director of the West African Center for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP), Professor Gordon Akanzuwine Awandare says, Ghana is not well-positioned to produce a COVID-19 vaccine soon.
He stated that, in order to come up with a vaccine for a virus such as the coronavirus, extensive research must be done to know the biological makeup of the virus even before moving to planning a vaccine. A process he describes as expensive.
He went on to say that, Ghana is not equipped with the required systems for producing a vaccine in responding to pandemics such as the coronavirus.
He said this makes it very difficult in mobilizing a quicker response in the case of a pandemic, as the world is currently facing.
“Vaccine research is very expensive, and it takes systematic capacity building to be able to respond to pandemics such as this. You will realize that the countries and companies that have been able to do this very quickly are those that have a history of doing these types of products, making vaccines… unfortunately in our part of the world, we haven’t built that kind of capacity.”
Professor Awandare however wished that, the experience from this pandemic bring stakeholders together to invest more in science, with respect to research laboratories. This, he believes if done, will put the nation on the right foot in the event of an outbreak of disease.
“This pandemic is an eye-opener for us to start focusing on science and start to systematically invest in science, so that we can have the capacity to respond and have our own vaccines and our own drugs.”
The WACCBIP Director further mentioned that, with the current capacity of the country, it cannot be competitive with other countries in the production of a COVID-19 vaccine. He added that, the capacity built by his institution over the years, is being used in the study of the makeup of the virus and hopes to do more.
“By the time we get anywhere near making a vaccine, the world would have made about 100 vaccines of COVID-19 already. We cannot be competitive with the capacity we have. We need to really step up and make sure that we strengthen our research institutions, so that we can be globally competitive.”
As of now, there is no confirmed vaccine for COVID-19 globally. However, there have been several proposed vaccines which are still in their clinical stages. Top amongst these proposed vaccines are those from Moderna Biotechnology Company and Pfizer Pharmaceutical Company. Both proposed vaccines are proven to have about a 95 percent efficacy rate, and are still in their final stages of clinical tests to make sure they are safe for vaccination.
