By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri
Accra, Ghana – On a 25-acre land at Larkpleku in the Ningo-Pramparm District of the Greater-Accra region sits Ghana’s leading sterile pharmaceutical manufacturing company, Atlantic Lifesciences Ltd.
Commissioned two years ago on April, 22, 2022, by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the company specialises in the production of various sterile dosage forms of pharmaceutical drugs, including large and small volume parentals – medication that is administered by injection or infusion, such as eye, ear and nose drops, biological products, vaccines, and inhalation anaesthetic solution in accordance with the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Current Good Manufacturing Practices (CGMP).
The following year, in April 2023 President Akufo-Addo cut sod for the construction of a second vaccine manufacturing plant, the DEKSVaccine Ltd., a manufacturing facility located in Medie Kotoku, in the Ga West Municipal District of the Greater Accra Region.
The creation of these two facilities demonstrates the Ghanaian government’s commitment, made during the COVID-19 pandemic, to becoming independent in vaccine production by building the infrastructure and capacities to manufacture medicines at home.
The arrival of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in 2020 triggered a global pandemic that resulted in the closure of borders, social distancing, and the loss of millions of lives.
WHO’s announcement in December 2020 of its approval of the first vaccine for the prevention of the disease, some 10 months after it declared COVID-19 a global pandemic, brought a feeling of relief around the world to governments and citizens alike.
However, Africa’s citizens would have to wait to receive shipments of the vaccine from international donors because the continent did not have the manufacturing capacity to produce its own vaccine.
It would not be until March 2021 that the first vaccine doses shipments would arrive on the continent, with Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire being the first countries to receive them. Meanwhile, for the continent’s citizens during this time lag, the COVID-19 virus infection rates were rapidly increasing along with the number of people falling ill and dying.
The pandemic experience highlighted the disparities in vaccine production and availability between economically rich and low-income countries and the urgent need for Africa countries to make vaccine production on the continent a priority, something that Ghana’s President Akufo-Addo recalled in his speech during the groundbreaking ceremony for the second vaccine production facility.
“The state-of-art facility will make Ghana realise its dream of becoming self-sufficient in the production of vaccines and this is a fulfilment of government’s ambition at the height of the COVID pandemic to see to the manufacture of vaccines locally,” said President Akufo-Addo, “Never again shall we be pawns of the international vaccine global order,” he declared.
This sentiment and this sense of urgency was shared by Africa’s leaders and plans were set in motion to rapidly address this situation and find a solution.
In March 2022, the African Union announced the adoption of the Framework for Action which set a target goal of having 60% of all vaccines used on the continent produced locally –up from the current 1%. The Framework was developed by the Partnerships for Africa Vaccine Manufacturing (PAVM) under the supervision of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).
Building the infrastructure and building capacities to manage these facilities go hand-in-hand.
In Ghana, Atlantic Lifesciences Ltd., a large volume manufacturing firm, is a state-of-the-art facility that has a Vaccine Fill and Finish plant for the essential life-saving bulk vaccines via technology transfer processes, said Smart Bediako, company Quality Assurance Manager. It has two Rommelag-Blow-Fill-Seal machines installed with combined capacity of 200,000 bottles for a day and around 55 million bottles per year. Its Ophthalmic production line also has an installed capacity of 264,000 vials per day or around 70 million vials per year, makingAtlantic Lifesciences one of the largest sterile manufacturing companies in West Africa with high production capacities.
“The two separate lines have been set up with the first line ready for fill and finish operations for biological products and bacterial vaccines and having an installed capacity of 180 million doses per year. Production on the first line began in the third quarter of 2023,” said Bediako.
The second line, he continued, which has utility provisions, such as plumbing and cleanrooms which are required in vaccine plant design, will be fully installed with necessary production equipment to support Fill and Finish of other vaccines. “The second line is projected to have expanded capacity of filling 480 million doses of various vaccines per year,” he added.
It is also creating jobs. The company currently employs more than 400 employees, 260 males and 140 females, and is a member of the African Vaccine Manufacturing Initiative (AVMI).
In addition to government and leadership willingness and commitment, building these facilities also requires government financing commitment. In Ghana, the groundbreaking for the construction of DEK Vaccine Ltd, the country’s second vaccine production facilities, came as a result of the signing of a €5 million Euros (around GHS 74,406,000—just over $5 million USD) investment grant agreement between the European Investment Bank (EIB) and DEK Vaccines Ltd. to strengthen Ghana’s private sector local vaccine manufacturing initiative and to ensure vaccine equity and access.
The DEK project, upon completion, would build the country’s capacity to manufacture 600 million doses of vaccines annually including the full value chain of malaria, pneumonia rotavirus and cholera vaccines.
Beginning with the Fill and Finish, the DEK Vaccines factory will eventually incorporate vaccine manufacturing and production, with a plan to construct a total of four Fill and Finish lines that can fill any type of vaccine. It will have the capacity to fill both mRNA and traditional vaccines. It is expected to create job opportunities for more than 1,000 people directly and indirectly, in particularly the youth.
Also, Bediako noted that manufactured products by Atlantic Lifesciences Ltd. do not just serve the local market in Ghana but are also exported regionally, to various countries in the ECOWAS sub-region including Cote d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Liberia, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mail, Niger, Cameroun , and Chad.
This is exactly the type of collaboration that the Framework for Action is designed to foster. This coordinated approach seeks to augment and expand these efforts.
Dr. John Nkengasong, Director of the African Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, said the Framework for Action calls for governments to provide increased financial resources, to shift national health priorities where required, and to advocate for enabling policies, all with the goal of making vaccine manufacturing and trade easier within the continent.
“We recognise that the vaccine manufacturing ecosystem is a dynamic one, and we therefore view the Framework for Action as a ‘living document’ that will be updated on an ongoing basis by the Partnerships for African Vaccine Manufacturing to account for any significant changes that impact the vaccine ecosystem,” he stated.
The bold programs that makeup the Framework for Action were designed by a Task Force composed of volunteer experts and industry leaders from across the continent, he said, noting, “We are embarking on an ambitious and exciting journey that will strengthen African health systems and secure the future of health responses across the continent.”
The implementation of these bold programs will be Africa-led, with support from the global system, and will demand that key stakeholders and implementation partners including governments, manufacturers, national regulatory authorities, donors, and funders, work in a coordinated manner, he noted.
“This is a time to work together and to support each other as we build a more resilient Africa for current and future generations. We call on all stakeholders to embrace this journey ahead of us and to play their part in bringing us to ‘the Africa we wish to see,” Dr. Nkengasong added..
Through the bold programs outlined in the Framework for Action, it is hoped that Africa become more self-reliant as it addresses its vaccination needs. These programs advocate for the establishment of an African vaccines procurement pooling mechanism to provide certainty for African manufacturers; strengthening National Regulatory Authorities and Regional Centres of Regulatory Excellence to build vaccine regulatory excellence; establishing a Vaccine Manufacturing Deal Preparation Facility to help manufacturers build compelling business plans for investors; and, support for project financing for vaccine ecosystem enablers, that is, supporting stakeholders.
It also calls for the establishment of a Vaccine Technology Transfer & Intellectual Property Brokering Service to link technology providers and recipients to an ecosystem of support for tech transfers, forming vaccine research and development centres as well as a research and development coordinating unit to manage research conducted on the continent.Furthermore, it will see to the establishment of Regional Capability and Capacity Centres to enhance human capital; and supporting enabling trade policies for vaccines – all guided by a continental strategy with a delivery and oversight mechanism.
As designed, the AU’s Framework for Action initiative will complement and build on efforts already begun by certain countries across the continent to expand vaccine manufacturing, fostering collaborative work.
Thus, countries such as Ghana, are teaming with Rwanda and Senegal to boost the development and manufacturing of vaccines to reduce sub-Sahara Africa’s over dependence on vaccine importation.
In Central Africa, Rwanda has inaugurated its BioTech Vaccine Manufacturing Site funded by the COVID-19 vaccine manufacturer, BioTech, a German company, at the cost of about $150 million. BioTech aims to start production at its Messenger Ribonucleic Acid (mRNA) vaccine factory site in Rwanda in 2025.
The inauguration of this facility reaffirms that efforts to fulfil the commitment made by African leaders for the construction of an end-to-end vaccine manufacturing facility involving Ghana, Rwanda and Senegal is truly underway.
Senegal is also establishing a vaccine manufacturing plant following the commitment of approximately 75 million Euro ($80 million) by the European Investment Bank (EIB). The plant, operated by the Dakar-based Institut Pasteur, is intended to produce vaccines against COVID-19, Yellow Fever and other endemic diseases. Once up and running at full capacity, the facility is expected to produce up to 300 million vaccine doses per a year.
On May 5, 2023, WHO Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, declared that COVID-19 was no longer a public health emergency of international concern. However, he stressed that “the virus was still with us and that it was “still killing, and it’s still changing.” He urged the global community to transition from emergency mode to managing COVID-19 alongside other infectious diseases.
Indeed, for the world, the days of the COVID-19 pandemic are now history. However, preventative vaccination is still recommended as the WHO director noted, “the virus is still with us.”
According to the national Ghana Health Service (GHS), a total of 28,782,098 COVID-19 vaccine doses had been administered as of March 31, 2024, with 71.9% of the target population receiving at least one vaccine dose. However, while greatly reduced, COVID-19 infections are still being recorded. GHS notes that as of April 7, 2024, 21 active COVID-19 cases had been reported with a positivity rate of 12.4 percent.
For Ghana and other African countries, vaccine self-sufficiency is just part of the overall goal. The ultimate goal is the development of vaccine manufacturing capability throughout the continent; from end to end with full technology transfer and fewer restrictions on market access. This will be crucial in removing global inequalities in the provision of essential health products.
JAO/wj