Govt to invest $25m towards the establishment of National Vaccine Institute – Akufo-Addo

The government of Ghana is set to invest some US$25 million as seed money towards the establishment of a National Vaccine Institute in a bid to produce COVID-19 vaccine locally.

President Akufo-Addo disclosed this during his 26th address to the nation on measures adopted in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, on Sunday, July 25.

According to him, “Government has committed to inject seed funding of some twenty-five million United States dollars (US$25 million) this year, into this enterprise”

The institute when established will have six mandates:

1. Establishing local vaccine manufacturing plants;

2. Deepening Research & Development (R&D) for vaccines in Ghana;

3. Upgrading and strengthening the FDA;

4. Forging bilateral and multilateral partnerships for vaccine manufacturing in various areas, such as funding, clinical trials, technology transfer, licensing, and assignment of intellectual property rights;

5. Building the human resource base for vaccine discovery, development, and manufacture; and

6. Establishing a permanent national secretariat to coordinate vaccine development and manufacture