Chief Executive Officer of the National Vaccine Institute (NVI), Dr Sodzi Sodzi-Tettey, has disclosed that Ghana is preparing to pre-qualify Ghanaian companies to manufacture vaccines for the local and wider African market.

He said the move follows Ghana's decision to join the Africa Pool Procurement Mechanism, which is expected to create opportunities for local vaccine manufacturers to compete for supply contracts across the continent.

Speaking on the Joy FM Super Morning Show on Thursday, September 10, Dr Sodzi-Tettey confirmed that Ghana's plan is to manufacture and supply selected vaccines rather than simply import them.

“That is the plan,” he said when asked whether a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed by Ghana would eventually lead to the country manufacturing and supplying certain vaccines.

He said a regional meeting would be held in Accra in November to begin the process of identifying and preparing Ghanaian companies that have the capacity to participate.

“So in November this year, having joined the Africa pool procurement mechanism, we are going to organise a regional meeting. We will have the leadership of the pool procurement mechanism in Accra,” he said.

According to Dr Sodzi-Tettey, the meeting will launch an application process through which Ghanaian companies will be assessed and pre-qualified.

“What they are going to do is roll out an application process that would enable us to pre-qualify Ghanaian companies,” he explained.

He said interested companies would have to demonstrate their manufacturing capacity, including the type and volume of vaccines they can produce.

“So the companies will have to demonstrate capacity. What are you able to manufacture and in what quantities?” he said.

Companies that successfully pass the pre-selection process will then be able to participate in tenders and potentially supply vaccines beyond Ghana.

“Once you are pre-selected, it means that when the tenders are issued, you can apply, and then you can have access to the continental market of over 1.4 billion people,” Dr Sodzi-Tettey said.

Dr Sodzi-Tettey was also asked why Ghana had settled on five vaccines for the initial phase of its manufacturing plans.

He explained that the selection was based on the importance of the vaccines to the country's immunisation programme.

“So we settled on them because they are critical for our vaccine immunisation programme,” he said.

He also cited incentives available under the Gavi-supported Africa Vaccines Manufacturing Accelerator initiative, which aims to encourage vaccine production in Africa, particularly in areas requiring more complex manufacturing capabilities.

“We settled on them also because within Gavi, there are some incentives. There's a programme called Africa Vaccines Manufacturing Accelerator Initiative where there are some incentives that are put there for more complex manufacturing,” he said.

He said those incentives could help manufacturers recover the significant investments required to produce more complex vaccines.

“Which means that when we are able to hit those areas, we would be able to recoup our investments into those areas,” he said.

Dr Sodzi-Tettey said Ghana would initially focus on a product that does not receive such subsidies before moving into more complex vaccine manufacturing.

“So we started with a product that has no subsidies, so to speak,” he said.

He added that the expectation was for governments to provide a market for the initial products, allowing local manufacturers to build their capacity before expanding into more complex production.

“But we think that the governments are able to purchase that and then we go into more complex manufacturing, which we can then supply to the rest of the market,” he said.

While the initial manufacturing programme will focus on vaccines that are already established, Dr Sodzi-Tettey said Ghana is also looking at research and development for diseases for which there are currently no established vaccines.

“So, the manufacturing is now focusing on established vaccines,” he said.

He explained that research would focus on developing new vaccine candidates to respond to emerging diseases and future health threats.

“And then there's the work being done in research and development to develop new vaccine candidates, to manage things like mpox, Ebola, and so on and so on, which we do not have established vaccines for yet,” he said.

“That is where the research will be focused on developing new vaccines.”