Vice-President Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang has urged pharmacists to play a bigger role in tackling the growing burden of chronic and non-communicable diseases in Ghana.
She said pharmacists must go beyond dispensing medicines and become more involved in disease prevention, early detection, patient care and the safe use of medicines.
Prof. Opoku-Agyemang made the call when she opened the 90th Anniversary Annual General Meeting and Scientific Conference of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana (PSGH) in Accra yesterday.
She said Ghana’s changing health needs required a health system capable of detecting diseases early, managing them effectively and preventing avoidable complications.
She said the call was in line with the government’s free primary healthcare programme, which focuses on prevention, screening and early detection.
The Vice-President also stressed the need for strong regulation of the pharmaceutical sector to protect patients and maintain public confidence.
She said the Pharmacy Council, Food and Drugs Authority, Health Facilities Regulatory Agency and other relevant institutions must continue to work together to protect the public.
Prof. Opoku-Agyemang said regulation must also keep pace with developments in technology, including artificial intelligence, digital prescribing and changing medicine supply chains.
She further called for the strengthening of local pharmaceutical production to reduce the country’s dependence on imported medicines.
According to her, local manufacturers were developing capacity to produce infusions, injectables, ophthalmic products and anaesthetics.
The Vice-President said local pharmaceutical production was important not only for industrial development but also for the country’s health security.
She said the government had announced a five-year strategy to expand domestic pharmaceutical manufacturing and reduce dependence on imported medicines.
She also said Ghana’s participation in the African pooled procurement mechanism would create opportunities for local pharmaceutical and vaccine manufacturers to access larger markets.
Prof. Opoku-Agyemang, however, stressed that quality must remain central to the expansion of the industry.
She urged pharmacists to use the 90th anniversary to build a stronger profession capable of responding to future health challenges.
The President of the PSGH, Mr Paul Owusu Donkor, also called on the government to make local pharmaceutical manufacturing a national economic and security priority.
He welcomed the government’s plan to increase local medicine production, saying, “The expansion of local production could create jobs and reduce Ghana’s vulnerability to disruptions in the global medicine supply chain”.
Mr Donkor called for predictable government procurement of quality-assured Ghanaian medicines, timely payments, affordable long-term financing and support for technology transfer.
He also urged the government to intensify the fight against illegal mining, saying the destruction of rivers and other water bodies could undermine pharmaceutical production and wider industrial development.
BY AGNES OPOKU SARPONG
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