ROUNDTABLE ON PHARMACEUTICAL SECTOR IN GHANA

14/7/09
Story: Mary Mensah
The Ministry of Trade and Industry in conjunction with the United Nations Development Organisation (UNIDO) and the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association of Ghana (PMAG), today held a roundtable discussion for the improvement of the pharmaceutical sector in the country.
The discussion formed part of UNIDO’s ongoing global project financed by the German government on strengthening the local production of essential generic drugs in developing and least developing countries.
The project aims at supporting small and medium enterprises in selected countries to manufacture drugs that will fight HIV/AIDs, Malaria and Tuberculosis.
The Minister of Trade and Industry, Ms Hanna Tetteh, who opened the meeting commended PMAG for taking the initiative to come up with a strategic document for further development of the country’s pharmaceutical industry.
She said working with the pharmaceutical sector, it should be possible to translate the document into a national pharmaceutical development strategy.
“We also believe that it should also be necessary to have consultations with various government department and agencies who are concerned with the management of the health sector,” she said.
The Minister indicated that Ghana’s pharmaceutical manufacturing industry which was still very much an infant industrial sector has some formidable challenges to overcome.
She said there was the need to invest considerable amounts of resources into the acquisition of equipment, development of quality control systems and the training of personnel to be able to meet the needs of the industry at every stage of the manufacturing process.
Ms Tetteh said the pharmaceutical industry by its nature has to be researched and development oriented in order to create new medications for the treatment of various strains of infection and diseases as some medical conditions become resistant to available medications.
Dr Michael Agyekum Addo, President of PMAG said Ghana had a relatively well developed pharmaceutical industry compared to most other sub-Saharan African countries.
He said with more than 20 active companies, Ghanaian manufacturers were able to supply the country’s needs for finished products on the restricted list as well as various other treatments, while some companies were exporting a limited volume to other countries in the ECOWAS region.
He said, however, that the capital intensive nature of the industry, the high cost of capital in Ghana and the advantageous context of international competitors suggested that to be sustainable parallel initiatives on the business reality would need to be implemented simultaneously in order to enable the local manufacturers to progress.
On his part, Mr Francois d’Adesky, UNIDO Interim Representative in Ghana and Togo urged the participants to see the meeting as an opportunity for stakeholders to identify the main issues and to agree on mechanisms for working together to explore the challenges and to develop a shared strategy.
He said developing the pharmaceutical industry was a complex task that would need to factor in issues such as market opportunities, access to finance, quality requirements, human resource development, cost considerations and impact on the public health agenda.