Soon, Ghana could start importing packages of coronavirus vaccines in bulk so that local companies can fill them into vials, the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) has said.

The Chief Executive Officer of the FDA, Delese Mimi Darko indicated that this is likely to happen within the six months, citinewsroom.com reports.

Already, she added, some indigenous companies are in the processes of getting the needed documentation and clearance to engage in the process.

As the country took stock of the coronavirus vaccines, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo gave indications of Ghana’s willingness to begin the manufacture of vaccines for the coronavirus.

A committee has been established by the government in the interim to formulate a concrete plan for Ghana to develop and manufacture vaccines locally.

Although Ghana may not be well-placed to commence research and clinical trials in the short term, Delese Mimi Darko said that the filling of vials with the vaccine is a more attainable thing soon.

“We may not be at that end of the entire drug development lifecycle but at least we can start with the filling,” Mrs. Darko said to Citi News.

She explained further that, “There is one company that probably in the next six months, could start filling vaccines into vials and labelling them. You would get the bulk from one of these manufacturers and then complete it, do the testing and everything and then send the vaccine out.”

She also disclosed that when that happens, the country could have as many as three companies engaged in the filling process.

“We’ve also found another company that is on the way there and there is the third that is about to start… We will be well-positioned to start filling and finishing vaccines in the next six months,” she said.

On March 2, this year, Ghana officially began vaccinating its populace after it took stock of the first 600,000 AstraZeneca doses of the vaccine that it received from the global COVAX vaccine-sharing facility on February 24.