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A professor of Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology has urged that the country focus more on vaccine discovery works so that it can own the vaccines and drugs developed in the country.
Professor Gordon Awandare, the Pro-Vice Chancellor for Academic and Students Affairs of the University of Ghana, explained that if the country only collaborated with others to produce vaccines rather than developing them alone, Ghana would never be able to derive the full benefits.
He, therefore, called for some of the research fund to be channelled into vaccine discovery in the country.
Currently, he said, all the vaccines and drugs that the country was using were discovered elsewhere, meaning those who discovered them owned the intellectual property to them and were receiving revenue from Ghana’s use of those products.
"The only way we can own our vaccines and our drugs is to do the research that will lead to their discovery so that we own the intellectual property to them.
“If we try to take the short cuts by waiting for others to discover their vaccines and give us permission to produce them in Ghana, that's not the way to independence.
The way to independence is to make our own from discovery," he stated.
Prof. Awandare said this in an interview granted after the opening of the second West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP)/GIZ special forum on vaccine research and development in Accra yesterday.
Dubbed “Partnerships for the production of biologics and vaccines in Ghana”, the forum sought to showcase advances in vaccine research from WACCBIP and partners; identify infrastructure, policy, and financing gaps; highlight opportunities such as artificial intelligence (AI) applications and locally developed monoclonal antibodies; and develop recommendations for a roadmap to local vaccine and biologics production.
It brought together researchers, policymakers and industry to discuss Africa’s vaccine future, emphasising funding, infrastructure and capacity-building.
Prof. Awandare, who is also the founding Director of WACCBIP, added that beyond vaccine discovery works, Ghana needed to have a strong biotech industry that would translate the research discoveries into products and testing.
He, therefore, called on the government to provide some support in that sector or to incentivise the private sector to invest in that space.
On partnership in vaccine development, he said no country could do vaccine development without scientists, and expressed pleasure that the National Vaccine Institute (NVI) recognised that.
Touching on the research fund, he called for the setting up of proper structures and establishment of fair and transparent processes for selecting the ideas that the fund should support, adding that through that the fund would achieve the purpose of supporting innovative research that could lead to discoveries and product development.
Speaking on behalf of the Chief Executive Officer of the NVI, Dr Sodzi Sodzi-Tettey, the acting Director in charge of Policy, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation of NVI, Naana Afrakoma Yawson, said the institute believed that partnerships were fundamental to the ambition to build a resilient vaccine ecosystem that featured strong biologics production capacity.
She said they relied on the innovative efforts of academic and research institutions such as WACCBIP, the entrepreneurial drive of the local pharmaceutical industry, the guidance of policymakers and regulatory oversight to ensure quality and safety.
The Dean of the School of Biological Sciences of the University of Ghana, Prof. Francis Gbogbo, who represented the Provost of the College of Basic and Applied Sciences, Professor Shandow Yidana, said through its cutting-edge research, training of the next generation of scientists and strong collaboration with national and international partners, the university was helping to lay the foundation for a robust ecosystem that would drive vaccine development and biologics production in Ghana.
