Dr Yaw Adu Gyamfi says there must be a collaboration between the government and big pharmaceutical firms to form a consortium to set up a local plant to produce Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) for the country.
Currently, most of the Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) – key chemicals that make a drug work, used in Ghana are imported from India and China, “and that’s where we will be shortchanged. When it becomes critical for us to get this APIs or when India says we are not going to supply you with the powder that is used to produce these medicines then I think there will be a big problem for us.
“…because all these products come from petrochemicals and now that we are producing oil, these petrochemicals are available locally,” Adu Gyamfi said.
He said although the idea of forming a consortium is a long term decision, the move will help boost the production capacity of the local pharmaceutical companies to meet the needs of the country.
Speaking on the Asaase Breakfast Show on Asaaseradio.com, Yaw Adu Gyamfi said, “…one of our major problem locally is even companies coming together. Unity is strength but we have not been able to work together, be it those in the pharmaceutical product medications or even the herbal medicines.”
Research development
The president of AGI said there should be a budget for research in the health sector, adding “there is no money allocated in most of these African countries to do research and development which is a handicap in the promotion and growth of the pharmaceutical industry in Africa.”
He said “the COVID-19 pandemic is a wake-up call for us to look at it [research funding]. Until we start to put money in healthcare, invest in the healthcare system and budget for research and development, we are going nowhere.
“If there is enough funding for research there will be a collaboration between agric, industry, government and the pharmaceutical companies,” he added.
In April 2018, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo said the government has committed itself to establish a research fund for the sole purpose of funding relevant and certain specific research works in tertiary institutions.
The fund, he said, which would be in addition to the book and research allowance, was part of the efforts by the government to deal with the problem of funding tertiary education.
