Ghana to start producing anti-snake serum

Ghana is set to produce anti-snake venom to save the lives of people bitten by snakes, which sometimes leads to death due to the unavailability of the life-saving serum.

This was disclosed during the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between a Ghanaian company, Atlantic Lifesciences, and Vins Bioproducts Limited, an Indian company, for the commencement of fill and finish production of the anti-snake venom in Ghana.

The anti-snake venom will be able to neutralize over 19 different species of snake bites. It forms part of the government’s agenda to make Ghana the hub of vaccine manufacturing in the African sub-region.

Speaking at the event in Accra, the CEO of Atlantic Lifesciences, Dhananjay Tripathi, said that Ghana would be the first country in West Africa to produce and package anti-snake venom for local use and export.

The Executive Director of Vins Bioproducts Limited, Siddarth Daga, expressed his satisfaction at collaborating with Atlantic Lifesciences to produce anti-snake venom in Ghana.

The CEO of the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), Delese Mimi Darko, said that the FDA has approved the production of the anti-snake venom.

“Anti-venoms are critical vaccine commodities which are often out of stock in Ghana and other regions, leading to unavoidable deaths. There are several initiatives globally and nationally underway to increase access to anti-venoms, both here and in the rest of the world. This MoU will mark the beginning of several such agreements between local manufacturers and giant pharmaceutical industries to help support manufacturers towards self-sustainability and supply in Ghana and to export to many countries. Everything we test in our laboratory is worldwide,” she said.

Vins Bioproducts Limited is a leading producer of vaccines.

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