A high-ranking delegation of five German pharmaceutical companies is in Ghana to establish partnership with the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry and also improve on the production of medicines in the country.

This is a joint initiative of the German Federation of Industries and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Co-operation and Development to help reduce Ghana’s importation of drugs.

Dr Kwaku Agyemang-Mensah, Minister of Health, speaking at the opening ceremony of the five-day stakeholder’s workshop in Accra, said the initiative would play a major role in maintaining public health, and making essential medicines and medical devices available and affordable.

He said the partnership would also strengthen medical technology and pharmaceutical industries to increase growth in exports as well as widen the economy through increased employment in the country.

"The partnership would mutually benefit both countries in knowledge sharing of markets, strategies, best practices, procedures and processes to increase growth," he said.

He said Ghana had 20 active pharmaceutical manufacturing companies which focused on the final formulation and packaging stage with the vast majority of its raw materials being sourced from international suppliers, hence the initiative would cut down on the number of importation to attract investors.

Dr Agyemang-Mensah said a recent purchase of a 60 per cent stake in Ayrton Drug Manufacturing Limited, one of two pharmaceutical manufacturers listed on the Ghanaian Stock Exchange by Adcock Ingram, a South African multinational pharmaceutical company, supported the hypothesis that Ghana’s pharmaceutical sector had the potential to attract investment.

He, therefore, urged stakeholders to see the initiative as an opportunity to develop the pharmaceutical sector to increase share of the domestic non-donor funded market to allow for penetration into the West African market and access the donor funded market both domestically and in the sub-region.

The Minister said in spite of the huge opportunities, significant progress was required in terms of increasing the quality standards of production and understandable concerns regarding the impact of increased quality requirements on the competitiveness of the sector.

Dr Agyemang-Mensah thanked the German pharmaceutical companies for the bold initiative to break new grounds in the medical and pharmaceutical industry in Ghana.

Mr Bernhard Abels, Deputy German Ambassador to Ghana, thanked the German pharmaceutical companies for coming to Ghana to establish this initiative, adding that this would strengthen the collaboration between the two countries for development.

The companies are Bosch Packaging, Bayer Health Care Pharmaceutical, Boiscientia, Dragger and Partec engaged in different ventures such as laboratory services, pharmaceuticals and machinery to aid and enhance the sector to improve quality of healthcare delivery.