The Director of the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, Prof. Dorothy Yeboah-Manu, has said that the outfit has secured funding to begin the production project of a local vaccine for the African continent.
During the institute's 8th Annual Research Meeting (ARM) 2023, held under the theme 'Strengthening Research Capacity to Mitigate Current and Future Disease Threats: Bridging the Research-Policy Divide,' Prof. Yeboah-Manu highlighted the institute's commitment to advancing research and development.
According to her, the institute has been able to secure funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to begin the development of local vaccines.
“We have been very good with surveillance in genomic epidemiology. One of the key things we want to do as an institute is research and development, and now we have a funding from the Melinda and Bill Gate Foundation to develop drugs so now, there is a drug development project that we have established, and we are looking for other partners to help us on how to move meaningfully into Africa’s quest for vaccine development and there are quite a number of research ongoing and we hope that they will contribute more as we go through this quest,” she stated.
Prof. Yeboah-Manu expressed the institute's openness to collaboration and partnership to enhance Africa's pursuit of vaccine development. She noted ongoing research activities and emphasised the importance of involving various stakeholders in the annual research meetings to share findings and progress.
“Research cannot be done and kept under the shelf. So, annually what we do is that we call all key stakeholders; Ghana Health Service, Ministry of Health, World Health Organisation, West Africa Health Organisation and other academicians, to come together and tell them of what we have done and what we have found as part of our research,” she added.
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