President Akufo-Addo has today, Tuesday, April 18, 2023, cut the sod for the commencement of work on the construction of DEKs Vaccines Ltd, a private sector-led consortium of Ghanaian pharmaceutical companies.
According to the President, the construction of the project will help Ghana realise the dream of becoming self-sufficient in the production and manufacture of vaccines.
He stated that the idea for the project started on 28th February 2021, in update twenty-four (24) of what has come to be known as the “Fellow Ghanaian” series of addresses to the nation, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when I declared to the Ghanaian people my determination to manufacture vaccines here in Ghana.
He said the vaccine nationalism that was played out by the developed world, with the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, meant that we had to take urgent, critical steps towards making sure that never again would we be victims or pawns of the international vaccine order. It was imperative that we took our destiny into our own hands.
He announced that in the short term of two (2) years, DEKs Vaccines Ltd will fill, finish, and package COVID-19 and other vaccines such as those against tuberculosis and malaria.
In the medium term, that is in five (5) years, the target is to continue the establishment of more domestic vaccine manufacturing plants in the country to manufacture vaccines to meet WHO GMP standards, with the long-term target being to produce a candidate vaccine in ten (10) years, using innovative technologies, the President added.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
