Establish Regulatory Harmonisation Scheme for Ghana’s vaccine development – Simons

0
165

Bright Simons is President and founder of MpedigreeBright Simons is President and founder of Mpedigree

•Government has been urged to establish a Regulatory Harmonisation Scheme

•This, Bright Simons believes will ensure the country is benefiting from the production of safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines

•Ghana plans to establish a National Vaccine Institute to reduce the dependence on foreign supplies

President and founder of Mpedigree, Bright Simons has stated that Ghana’s efforts to develop its vaccine development capacity will not yield results if a favorable regulatory environment is not created.

According to Simons, the government has to establish a Regulatory Harmonisation Scheme which will ensure the country is raking in the full benefits from the production of safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines.

“The truth is that it has not led to vaccine trade or even to pharmaceutical trade beyond a certain level. It’s not just liberalising the tariffs that would make so much of a difference. You need regulatory harmonisation.”

“Because if it takes me one year to register my vaccine in Chad, it makes no point. So, unless we have a regulatory harmonisation scheme with Ghana at the heart of it, it will be a bit difficult. But I think it’s in Ghana’s interest to align its diplomacy to push regulatory harmonisation,” Simons said this at the third edition of the Ghana Pharma Summit in Accra.

President Akufo-Addo in his 26th COVID-19 update to the nation announced the government’s plans to develop its capacity to produce COVID-19 vaccines locally in a bid to reduce the dependence on foreign supplies.

According to him, this is as a result of the global shortage of coronavirus vaccines that has stalled the country’s vaccination plans for some time.

President Akufo-Addo also revealed government will commit to a seed fund injection of US$25 million towards the establishment of the National Vaccine Production Institute.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here