Eight research partnerships have been awarded grants worth €2m to develop new vaccines and medicines in Ghana.

The funding was issued under the PharmaVax Ghana programme, which supports collaboration between Ghanaian research institutions and pharmaceutical companies.

The projects cover a range of areas, including child-friendly malaria medicines, plant-based therapies for chronic diseases, and the use of artificial intelligence to speed up the discovery of antibodies for malaria and Mpox.

As well as the €2m in grants, the programme will provide technical assistance to help researchers turn scientific discoveries into health products for local and regional markets.

Ghanaian partners are contributing a further €425,000 to the projects.

The grants were presented at a Research Meets Manufacturing award ceremony in Accra on 19 August, co-hosted by the National Vaccine Institute (NVI) and the German development agency GIZ.

The PharmaVax Ghana programme is jointly funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the European Union.

The eight winners were chosen from 43 applications following a competitive call for proposals organised by the NVI and GIZ.

Proposals were assessed by an independent committee of nine Ghanaian experts on technical merit, public benefit, involvement of a local manufacturer and long-term sustainability.

Successful projects will also receive networking opportunities and support to help commercialise their products.

The ceremony was attended by government officials, academics and industry representatives, including Health Minister Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, German Ambassador to Ghana Frederik Landshöft, and Jonas Claes, Chargé d'affaires at the EU Delegation to Ghana.