Ghana’s pharmaceutical industry has entered its ‘golden era’ – NVI CEO

The Chief Executive of the National Vaccine Institute (NVI), Dr Sodzi Sodzi-Tettey, has declared that Ghana’s pharmaceutical industry has entered its “golden era” as the government launched a new policy framework on Wednesday, October 28, 2026.

The new policy aims to transform Ghana into a continental hub for medicine and vaccine manufacturing.

Speaking at the launch of the Ghana Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Policy (GPMP) at the Ghana EXIM Bank premises, Dr Sodzi-Tettey said the policy would address critical questions that have long hindered financing for local manufacturers.

He said Ghana’s decade-long ambition to lead Africa in pharmaceutical production was now being backed by concrete action, rather than words alone.

“We are witnessing the golden era of the pharmaceutical industry in Ghana,” Dr Sodzi-Tettey told an audience that included the Minister of Trade, Agribusiness and Industry, Elizabeth Ofosu-Adjare, and the Minister of Health, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh. “In a few years to come, this will be self-evident.”

Dr Sodzi-Tettey said the GPMP was a direct response to the financing challenges facing the sector. He noted that the NVI was tasked with mobilising resources for two private manufacturers and partners, Atlantic Lifesciences and DEK Vaccines Ltd, which require at least $100 million to build and equip their plants.

“When we approach Development Finance Institutions, a few questions are thrown back at us: How supportive is government of these initiatives? Will your government buy the vaccines and the medicines you are planning to manufacture? Does your government have any policy on local manufacturing?” he said.

“I can confidently respond and say... Ghana has a Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Policy which articulates in clear, concrete terms the support that government is providing for the sector.”

The policy includes provisions for the local production of essential raw materials, pharmaceutical research and development, contract manufacturing, skills development, industry-specific tax exemptions, investment financing, market expansion and vaccine manufacturing.

Dr Sodzi-Tettey outlined several achievements to support his assertion that Ghana’s pharmaceutical industry had entered a “golden era”.

In May 2025, the NVI, in collaboration with Atlantic Lifesciences, manufactured snake venom antiserum, described as Ghana’s first biological product. The development marked a milestone for the country, where an estimated 10,000 people in rural areas suffer snakebites each year.

In August 2025, President John Dramani Mahama allocated $50 million to the NVI to support vaccine manufacturing.

The NVI has also established an mRNA laboratory at the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, a development that places Ghana among five African countries with the technology. The laboratory is expected to be officially launched by the President this year.

By 2027, Ghana is targeting the production of two additional products: anti-tetanus serum and its first vaccine, the tetanus-diphtheria vaccine.

“Not only are we producing. We are also buying what we produce,” Dr Sodzi-Tettey said, noting that procurement processes for the Ghana-made snake venom antiserum were well underway under the leadership of the President and the Health Minister.

At the event, which attracted industry players and Ghana’s bilateral partners, Dr Sodzi-Tettey also highlighted the country’s expanding reach beyond its borders.

In August, the Health Minister, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, signed a memorandum of understanding linking Ghana to the African market through the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention’s Pooled Procurement Mechanism (APPM).

Atlantic Lifesciences has since been prequalified under the APPM, onboarded as a registered manufacturer for five years and awarded a contract to supply oxytocin to the African market under the Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (RMNCH) essential medicines framework.

“Today, Atlantic Lifesciences, a Ghanaian company, has been prequalified under the APPM. This means it fully meets all standards to supply medicines on the continent,” Dr Sodzi-Tettey said.

He credited President Mahama’s long-standing vision of making Ghana a pharmaceutical manufacturing hub in West Africa, citing more than GH¢50 million invested in at least three pharmaceutical companies under the previous Mahama administration.

He said the investment helped Ernest Chemist, another Ghanaian pharmaceutical company, develop a state-of-the-art plant compliant with Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) standards.

Dr Sodzi-Tettey also announced plans for a government strategy to establish a Ghana Pharmaceutical Hub, an integrated ecosystem intended to reduce the country’s current dependence on imported medicines, estimated at 70 per cent.

“The work is tedious. Brutal even. But moments like this make it lighter,” he said.

“The Trade Minister's industrialisation agenda is on course. The Health Minister’s agenda to improve health outcomes through investments in locally manufactured high-quality medicines is on course. The President’s vision to make Ghana a pharmaceutical leader in West Africa and indeed in Africa is very much on course.”

Dr Sodzi-Tettey maintained that the President’s ambition to make Ghana a pharmaceutical manufacturing leader in Africa was backed by concrete action rather than slogans.