Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has launched a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) that will see the expansion of access to sickle cell medication and related treatment to people living with Sickle Cell Disease (SCD).
The PPP between government, pharmaceutical giant, Novartis and the Sickle Cell Foundation Ghana, will improve the diagnoses and accelerate treatment for people with SCD in the country with the introduction of hydroxyurea to the treatment line at affordable cost.
Specifically, the partners will collaborate on field testing and implementation of SCD treatment guidelines, the establishment of cross-regional centers of excellence and the implementation of newborn screening at these centers.
Dr. Bawumia, speaking at the event which brought together over 500 stakeholders in the health sector, said Ghana by the PPP will be the first African country to ensure that hydroxyurea is accessible to people living with SCD at affordable cost.
He said government was working to ensure costs of hydroxyurea is covered in the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).
“Covering the cost of hydroxyurea for people with sickle cell disease in this country will bring much needed financial relief to families struggling with the cost of care for their loved ones with sickle cell disease,” he said.
The vice president said, there are steps being taken to advance discussion for the acceleration of parliamentary budget approval of hydroxyurea coverage.
“Our goal collectively, is to aspire to a nation where children attend school without being stigmatized; where adults can be employed without fear of discrimination… In a nutshell we will make every effort to normalize sickle cell disease within the Ghanaian society, he said.
In Ghana, it is estimated that 15,000 babies are born with sickle cell disease every year out of which 90 per cent die before they are five years old due to preventable complications.
Hydroxyurea treatment is highly effective in treating SCD by reducing the incidence of vaso-occlusive event, infections, malaria, transfusion and death.
Health Minister, Kwaku Agyemang Manu, said the five-year agreement will focus on four key areas including treatment, diagnosis, research and advocacy to help reduce the burden of SCD.
He said already the Health Ministry has taken delivery of 20,000 free hydroxyurea medications with the number expected to increase to 60,000 by the end of the year.
The medications he said, will be distributed free of charge to patients with SCD who have registered with Sickle cell centers, particularly children under five years, by trained doctors in the various hospitals.
He further expressed the Ministry’s commitment to, ‘put SCD among the priorities on our national health agenda and to put the required resources behind it.’
CEO of Novartis, Dr. Vas Narasimhan, expressed his excitement at the partnership adding at Novartis will be developing a paediatric formulation of hydroxyurea to enable easy administration to babies.
He thus encouraged new born screening of the SCD.
He further noted that Novartis will be scaling up the programme in other Sub Saharan African Countries.
“Novartis has a long-term commitment to ensuring that our medicines, and healthcare in general, are accessible to as many patients as possible.
Our hope is that we’ll continue to reimagine the way this disease is treated, in order to offer better medicines and improved care to sickle cell patients in Africa and around the world. I am proud that Novartis is committed to addressing this challenge,” he said.
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri
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