The Chairman who led the Health Committee to a tour of Atlantic Lifesciences Limited, a pharmaceutical company in Ghana said the company’s dream of producing vaccines locally is a shared one which aligns with President Mahama and the government’s vision; and it is only prudent that the company is supported to achieve that feat.

”I want to assure you that your health committee, we’re going to carry your concerns along; whatever challenges you mention here to the government; we’re going to ensure that they are looked into, and whatever can be done about them we will make sure that the dream of Atlantic Lifesciences Limited to manufacture vaccines which is also our dream is achieved.”

To buttress the government’s commitment in this regard, he said the government has allocated about $50 million USD to the pharmaceutical companies for the production of vaccines locally and was confident that Atlantic Lifesciences Limited would be a beneficiary of this package.

“For a company that is not only manufacturing drugs and injections but ambitious to even manufacture vaccines, we have to support their dream”, he stated.

He noted that the experiences of Covid-19 exposes Africa’s poor health system, adding that while every country was looking inward for solution, Africa was exposed; Africa was naked which brought the reality of how critical sectors of the health delivery chain particularly with vaccines and drugs manufacturing was ignored.

With Africa holding about 20 percent of the world’s population, the chairman believes that the continent should be doing more in these areas to cater for its citizens, stating that currently the continent produces just about one percent of vaccines in the world.

Drugs, apart from the injections, they are ready to produce vaccines for the sub-region and the global market.

Meanwhile, the deputy ranking on the Committee, Dr Patrick Boakye-Yiadom commended the company for how far they have pushed their operations from the last time the committee was there when the company was barely producing infusions, and yet to start the production of vaccines and the antibiotics and yet in few years the company has grown in leaps and bounds with potential to even expand further. “We need to encourage them; we need to pat them at the back so that they do more”.

He also assured the company that their concerns and challenges would be relayed to the appropriate authorities as they did the last time which brought in some assistance, and it would not be different this time.

Dr. Patrick Boakye-Yiadom acknowledged Atlantic Lifesciences Limited’s expansion drive, stating that by achieving that, they would be creating employment opportunities for Ghanaians, more that the current six hundred (600) staff strength while also helping to meet the healthcare needs of the citizens.