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The Institute of Leadership and Development (INSLA), a non-profit civil society centre, has commended Dr Michael K.

Obeng, a surgeon, for establishing a pharmaceutical plant in Ghana to manufacture medications to treat non-communication diseases (NCDs).

It noted that the effective and quality medications, which the plant would produce, would meet international standards to treat diseases such as high blood pressure, diabetes, malaria and pain, at affordable cost to the patients.

“This initiative will curb and mitigate the challenges and risks associated with counterfeit medications imported into Ghana,” Mr Issah Ali, Policy Adviser of INSLA said in an interview with the Ghana News Agency on Saturday.

He said: “The plant will also create employment and make Ghana a growing hub for pharmaceutical products, while further improving the country’s health delivery system by making high quality medications affordable and readily available to those within the poverty level”.

Mr Ali said according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), NCDs were estimated to kill around 41 million people every year, accounting for 71 per cent of all deaths worldwide, and causing half of all global disability.

“Although the burden is universal, low-and middle-income countries are hit the hardest, with over three quarters of all deaths occurring in these countries. NCDs account for an estimated 31 per cent of disease burden in Ghana. It constitute 55 per cent of Ghana’s annual death,” he said.

Mr Benjamin Anabila, the Director of INSLA, said the institute had been running an advocacy campaign and engagements project, calling for the manufacturing of affordable, accessible and efficient medications for People Living with Non-Communication Diseases (PLWNCDs) and other disease conditions in Ghana.

“PLWNCDs and other disease conditions within the poverty bracket are not able to afford the cost of treatment and medications for their conditions, hence it is commendable a pharmaceutical plant is being established in the country to manufacture effective and affordable medications for the vulnerable in society,” he said.

Mr Anabila appealed to the government to provide incentives and the necessary support to both domestic and foreign investors coming to the country with services or products to reduce the suffering and the burden of people living with NCDs.