Some Members of Ghana National Chamber of Pharmacy travelled to Israel to seek partnerships for local pharma expansion in Ghana
Some members of the Ghana National Chamber of Pharmacy led by the Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Anthony K. Ameka, in partnership with Israel Trade and Economic Mission traveled to Israel on June 25th 2022 to 2nd July, 2022 to explore Israeli partnership opportunities to help expand the scope and scale of Pharma operations in Ghana, West Africa, and SSA.
This Event facilitated by Mr. Edwin Acquah of Israel Trade and Economic Mission , Mr. Paul Seidu Gariba, Mr. Samuel Kwame Boadu and Mr. Moses Lumor of Ghana National Chamber of Pharmacy was also in collaboration with CalBank PLC Pharma Scheme .
This delegation comes to a head after a period of increasing interest, visits, and meetings between Ghanaian and Israeli Pharma stakeholders who are recognizing the potential of collaboration between the Israeli and Ghanaian Pharma Sectors.
For many years, Israel’s pharmaceutical and biotech sectors are highly respected with rapid expansion in many fields driven by a strong academic underpinning, world-class research facilities and high spending in research and development (R&D).
The Israeli pharma market is broadly composed of global generics manufacturers, such as Teva, Taro Pharmaceutical Industries, and Dexcel Pharma, and a host of smaller, R&D-driven biotech and health tech companies that are on the cutting edge of innovative health products and leading the charge in leapfrog medical technologies.
At the same time, Ghana is positioning itself as a Pharmaceutical Manufacturing hub to match the growing demand for locally manufactured pharmaceutical products for Ghana, the West African sub-region, and most importantly, for the imminent AfCFTA market. The industry, buoyed by the advantage of its associations, is working to expand its finished product portfolio to include advanced formulations, for generics and specialized products, as well as innovative drug delivery technologies.
With the establishment of the pharmaceutical enclave, the Ghanaian pharmaceutical sector is promoting contract manufacturing and research services as a growth industry area, and this makes the partnership between Ghana and Israel a natural and perfect fit both for local manufacture and supply of pharma, as well as the introduction of various biotech and health tech solutions to the Ghanaian, West Africa, and SSA Africa markets.
During the event period, a separate meeting was held between the Chief Executive Officer of Ghana National Chamber of Pharmacy and the Chief Executive Officer of Federation of Israeli Chamber of Commerce (FICC) to discuss a collaboration to build a strong trade solutions in the area of capacity building for interested Pharma Companies who want to set up an Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients(API) manufacturing Plant and joint partnership.
These partnerships when created can create over 1, 200 direct jobs for professionals and about 4,600 indirect jobs in the short term with an investment of about $125 million. The event also identified the skill gaps needed for local manufacturing of pharmaceuticals, partnering with leading universities in Israel to help shape the sector in Ghana.
The CEO of Kofikrom Pharmacy Ltd, Pharm. Kofi Addo-Agyekum stated that; “the visit has been so informative and eye-opening; we have hope for very innovative opportunities to develop and mature soon.” Some Ghanaian Pharmaceutical Companies in attendance were Unicom Chemist Limited, Pills Pharmaceuticals, Stereda Pharmaceutical Limited, Gabson Pharmacy Limited and Kofikrom Pharmacy Limited.
The Israel Trade and Economic Mission to Ghana and Ghana National Chamber of Pharmacy believe in the potential of Ghana-Israel Pharma collaboration aimimg at Increased local production of pharmaceuticals and improved access to medicines, medical devices, and health tech in Ghana
During the visit, the delegation met with a number of israeli officials, companies, scientists, investors and entrepreneurs. The meetings sought to examine means of enhancing cooperation between both countries in healthcare research and innovation, emergency resilience, digital health application, life sciences manufacturing and development and regulatory alignment. The contents of the discussion align with Ghana’s ongoing efforts to cement its global positioning as manufacturers and pharmaceutical hub. Included in the delegations’ itinerary were visits to Illumigyn, Nanox, SLE Logistics center, Federation of Israeli Chamber of Commerce, Teva Pharmaceuticals, IVT Medical Limited, Eitan Medical, TempraMed, Medispec, Sion Medical Limited , The Peres Centre of Peace and Innovation and Norav Medical Limited where they toured around the various departments of the above companies and previewed the latest technologies and innovative tools used.
During the visit, Ghana National Chamber of Pharmacy received much accolade for their effort to build a Pharma Enclave in Ghana.
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Credit Source : Israel Trade and Economic Mission to Ghana
Written by : Samuel Kwame Boadu-Administrative Officer at Ghana National Chamber of Pharmacy
