President Akufo-Addo has expressed optimism over Ghana’s participation in the Pan-Africa Vaccine Manufacturing project.

According to him, as he had earlier indicated in Marburg, the Pan-African Vaccine Manufacturing Project fits perfectly with Ghana’s roadmap for domestic vaccine development and manufacturing. He noted that Ghana is ready to play her role and reaffirmed“her determination to make the Project work successfully”.

“I assure all and sundry that Ghana is delighted to be part of this Pan-African Project to manufacture mRNA COVID, Malaria and TB vaccines from drug substance through drug product to fill, finish and package.”
President Akufo-Addo

Speaking at the ground-breaking ceremony for the commencement of construction of a vaccine manufacturing plant in Kigali, Rwanda, President Akufo-Addo expressed his gratitude to President Paul Kagame for the invitation to participate in the event. He highlighted that the commencement of construction “signals to the rest of the world the commencement of this end-to-end vaccine manufacturing facility”, involving Rwanda, Senegal and country of Ghana.

President Akufo-Addo stated that the import of the Pan-African Project means that Ghana, Senegal and Rwanda must work together. This, he explained, is the reason why the relationship between the Food and Drugs Authorities (FDA) of Ghana and Rwanda is being deepened with the signing of a new Memorandum of Understanding on Friday, 24th June, 2022.

“Through this, FDA Ghana, which achieved WHO Global Benchmarking Maturity Level Three (3) in 2020, and is working hard to achieve Maturity Level Four (4) by the end of this year, will assist FDA Rwanda to attain WHO Maturity Level Three (3) as soon as possible. Both agencies will collaborate further in vaccine drug product manufacturing, fill, finish and lot release in their respective countries.”
President Akufo-Addo

President Akufo-Addo emphasized that the collaboration between the two countries resulted recently in a team from Rwanda visiting research institutions in Ghana, with the aim of “strengthening institutional development and partnership towards vaccine discovery and advancement”.

Capacity-building for vaccine development

Additionally, the President revealed that Ghana’s research institutions are undergoing capacity-building to be ready for the discovery and development of vaccines and other biologicals. He opined that “a consortium of Ghanaian pharmaceutical companies, led by DEKS Vaccines Ltd., is working closely with BioNTech Rwanda, BioNTech Germany and kENUP to fill, finish and package the drug product in Ghana from the plant here in Rwanda.”

President Akufo-Addo expressed gratitude to BioNTech of Germany, kENUP Foundation, IFC, EIB and the other financial institutions for working closely together with African countries to enable the continent achieve vaccine self-sufficiency.

On his part, President of the Republic of Rwanda, Paul Kagame disclosed that the groundbreaking for BioNTech’s state-of-the-art mRNA production facility is a pivotal milestone. He expressed excitement to have BioNTech as a partner and further applauded the company’s commitment to working with Africa on a continental basis to help secure its vaccine resilience for the future, and “invest in new research to address the endemic diseases that disproportionately affect our people”.

“Working with our partners, Rwanda intends to build on this investment to attract a vibrant biopharmaceutical research and manufacturing sector.”
Paul Kagame