<<Print>>The University of Ghana Medical Centre(UGMC) has organised a Benefit Music Concert to raise funds for the construction of a state-of-the-art In-patient Clinical Trials Unit.
This will be the first-ever in the sub-region, where local trials will be carried out safely to international standards.
The "UGMC BENEFIT CONCERT" was also to create awareness on the project. It featured performances by Joe Mettle, KODA, Nii Okai, Joyfull Way Inc, and the UGMC Choir.
The Chief Executive Officer of the University of Ghana Medical Center, Dr. Kwame Anim-Boamah, appealed to every Ghanaian to help this course.
The amount needed for this project is 50 million Ghana Cedis. For one to donate, just download the Chango app, or dial *887*222# and follow the prompt.
According to him,The UGMC has embraced this challenge with the creation of the Medical and Scientific Research Centre (MSRC) which seeks to perform the necessary clinical trials to bring new treatments – local and foreign to Ghanaians.
To achieve this goal, there is an urgent need for a state-of-the-art in-patient Clinical Trials Unit (CTU) where the trials will be performed safely to international standards. A modern CTU will enhance Ghana’s development in many ways.
He said , it will ensure that medications taken by Ghanaians for chronic diseases such as high blood pressure, diabetes and cancer are suitable for our population. Many medications being used in Africa had the trials done in Europe or America where the genetic makeup of the trial participants are different. For instance, it is now clear that certain medications for hypertension do not work as well in black patients. If the trials for these medicines were done in here, this situation could have been prevented. Many pharmaceutical companies actually want to do trials in Africa but often the facilities and personnel to do the trials are not available. This is why UGMC is positioning itself as the hub for international clinical trials in Africa.
He explained that, "a modern CTU will enable us to train the next generation of Ghanaian clinical trialists. The COVID-19 pandemic has taught us that we need to train our own and perform our own trials. The hesitancy in taking up the COVID-19 vaccine is partly due to the fact that trials were not done here."
"However, the performance of clinical trials requires specific training and skills often not taught during the training of health personnel. Unfortunately, Ghana has very few doctors and other health personnel who are trained to perform clinical trials and most of them are retired or near retirement."
"There is an urgent need to train more personnel – doctors, nurses, pharmacists, trial coordinators for the country. A modern CTU at UGMC will enable us to train these personnel," he added.
According to him the UGMC has a large empty space in their clinical building that needs to be transformed into a state-of-the-art modern Clinical Trials Unit (CTU).
So far UGMC has been able to raise a little over ₵1 Million Ghana Cedis.
As part of ongoing fund-raising efforts to operationalize the Clinical Trials Unit, the UGMC in collaboration with its partners will be holding a number of fund-raising activities.