Ghana Launches Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Policy to Cut Medicine Imports

ACCRA, GHANA —  Ghana has launched the Ghana Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Policy, approved by Cabinet, with the aim of reducing the country’s 70 per cent dependence on imported medicines and building a self-sufficient health sector, MyJoyOnline reported on 2 November.

The policy was launched on 28 October at the Africa Trade House, with Trade, Agribusiness and Industry Minister Elizabeth Ofosu-Adjare, National Vaccine Institute (NVI) representatives, diplomats and industry stakeholders in attendance.

What the Ghana Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Policy includes

Section 7.7 of the policy names a purpose-built pharmaceutical park or hub a “top priority of the Government”, according to the report. The Ghana Pharmaceutical Hub is a presidential legacy initiative under the government’s 24-hour economy programme.

Dr Bernice Makafui Brempong, Presidential Coordinator for the hub and a pharmacist who serves as Senior Executive in charge of Investments in Healthcare and Pharmaceuticals at the Office of the President, said the hub’s second phase, planned for the Central Region, will focus on active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), herbal medicines, raw materials and excipients such as pharmaceutical-grade corn starch, corn syrup and ethyl alcohol.

Contract manufacturing with shared facilities is intended to help smaller companies. “Not every pharmaceutical company can afford to build its own manufacturing facility,” Brempong said. The hub also aims to address a skills gap and create jobs for Ghana’s approximately 1,600 unemployed pharmacists. “The approval of this policy is an important achievement, but it is only the beginning,” she said.

NVI Chief Executive Officer Dr Sodzi Sodzi-Tettey described the policy as the foundation for an “integrated ecosystem” strategy. He said its provisions cover local production of essential raw materials and excipients, pharmaceutical research and development, contract manufacturing with leading multinationals, recruitment of highly skilled professionals, collaboration with universities, industry-specific tax exemptions and financing, and vaccine manufacturing as a strategic priority.

Vaccines and biologicals

In August 2025, President John Mahama allocated $50 million to the NVI, which has since set up an mRNA laboratory at the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, making Ghana one of five African countries with the technology, according to the report. In May 2025, the NVI and Atlantic Lifesciences produced snake venom antiserum, described as Ghana’s first biological product.

Ghana plans to produce anti-tetanus serum and its first vaccine, a tetanus-diphtheria vaccine, in 2027. Atlantic Lifesciences was prequalified under the Africa CDC Pooled Procurement Mechanism and awarded a contract to supply oxytocin, a medicine used to prevent and treat bleeding after childbirth, to African countries.

Oxytocin is on the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines and is among the most important drugs for preventing deaths from bleeding after childbirth, the leading cause of maternal deaths in many African countries.

The report also said more than GH¢50 million had been invested in at least three pharmaceutical companies, including Ernest Chemist, under an earlier Mahama administration.

The Ghana Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Policy aligns with continental efforts to increase African production of medicines and vaccines. Africa imports most of the medicines it uses and nearly all its vaccines, and the African Medicines Agency, which opened regulatory hubs in Kigali last week, aims to make it easier for products approved in one country to reach others.

Nigeria faces similar challenges. At a meeting in Abuja on 30 October, officials and the World Bank warned that reliance on imported APIs threatens medicine security, and Nigeria has set a target of at least 70 per cent local production of essential health products by 2030.

Shared manufacturing facilities could help Ghana’s smaller producers meet good manufacturing practice standards without each building costly plants. Success will depend on reliable power and water, quality regulation by the Food and Drugs Authority, access to finance and steady demand from public procurement.

Contract manufacturing could also help Ghana attract multinational partners to produce medicines locally for the West African market, if quality standards and costs are competitive. The policy’s focus on excipients such as corn starch could create links with agriculture, since some of these inputs can be made from local crops.

For patients, the Ghana Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Policy could mean more reliable supplies of essential medicines and less exposure to currency swings if local production scales up.

The policy also has implications for pharmacists, who make up much of the workforce in manufacturing, quality control and regulation. Creating jobs for the roughly 1,600 unemployed pharmacists cited by Brempong would require training in industrial pharmacy and good manufacturing practice.

The report did not give a timeline for the second phase of the hub or its cost.

 

 

Why it matters: Local drug and vaccine production could protect Ghana from supply shocks and create jobs for pharmacists, if quality and financing keep pace.

 

 

Source: MyJoyOnline (Prince Adu-Owusu), November 2026.