NVI’s mRNA Lab: Vaccine Institute CEO celebrates Ghana’s leap into next-generation vaccine technology

The National Vaccine Institute (NVI) has established a state-of-the-art mRNA laboratory at the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, making Ghana one of only five African countries with this cutting-edge technology.

The CEO of NVI, Dr Sodzi Sodzi-Tettey, has hailed the milestone as a defining moment in the country's vaccine ambitions.

Speaking at the launch of the Ghana Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Policy (GPMP) at the Ghana EXIM Bank premises on Wednesday, Dr Sodzi-Tettey said the laboratory, set to be launched by President John Dramani Mahama this year, positions Ghana at the forefront of next-generation vaccine development on the continent.

"This year, the National Vaccine Institute set up a state-of-the-art mRNA laboratory at the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, making Ghana only one of five African countries with this cutting-edge technology," he told an audience that included the Minister of Trade, Agribusiness and Industry, Elizabeth Ofosu-Adjare, and the Minister of Health.

"This mRNA laboratory will be launched by the President this year."

mRNA technology, the platform behind some of the world's most effective COVID-19 vaccines, allows scientists to design and produce vaccines rapidly by instructing cells to make specific proteins.

For Ghana, the Noguchi lab represents a shift from dependence on imported vaccines toward the capacity to develop and manufacture them locally.

The laboratory sits within a broader push by the NVI to build Ghana's vaccine manufacturing ecosystem. In August 2025, President Mahama allocated $50 million to the NVI to support vaccine manufacturing, and the institute is mobilizing resources for two private manufacturers, Atlantic Lifesciences and DEK Vaccines Ltd, which need not less than $100 million to build and equip their plants.

The mRNA lab is the latest in a series of milestones Dr Sodzi-Tettey outlined. In May 2025, the NVI, in collaboration with Atlantic Lifesciences, manufactured Snake Venom Anti-Serum, Ghana's first biological product, a major development for the estimated 10,000 snakebite victims in rural areas each year.

Ghana is also on track to manufacture two additional products in 2027: Anti-Tetanus Serum and its first vaccine, the Tetanus Diphtheria vaccine.

The country's regulatory and market standing has advanced in parallel. Atlantic Lifesciences was prequalified under the Africa CDC's Pooled Procurement Mechanism, onboarded as a registered APPM manufacturer for five years, and awarded a contract to supply oxytocin to Africa under the RMNH essential medicines framework.

Dr Sodzi-Tettey stated that the mRNA lab and the policy launch are evidence that Ghana's pharmaceutical industry has entered its "golden era."

"We are witnessing the golden era of the pharmaceutical industry in Ghana," he said. "In a few years to come, this will be self-evident."

The GPMP itself, he noted, includes provisions on local raw materials, research and development, contract manufacturing, skills development, academia collaboration, tax incentives, investment financing, market expansion, and vaccine manufacturing, a framework he said answers the questions funders ask when the NVI seeks capital.