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The government, through the Ministry of Health, the Ghana Health Service and other partner agencies, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with global drug manufacturer Novartis to create a new public-private partnership to improve diagnoses and speed up the treatment of people with sickle cell disease (SCD).
The MOU makes Ghana the first country in Africa to commit to providing people with sickle cell disease with the global standard of care.
Mr. Kwaku Agyemang-Manu, Minister of Health; Dr. Anthony Nsiah-Asare, Director General, Ghana Health Service; and Professor Kwaku Ohene-Frempong, President of the Sickle Cell Foundation of Ghana and coordinator of the Newborn Screening Program for Sickle Cell Disease, signed on behalf of their respective organizations, while Vas Narasimhan, Managing Director, signed for Novartis.
About 80% of people with MSW are born in sub-Saharan Africa and more than half of people with AIDS die before the age of five due to preventable complications. In Ghana, an estimated 15,000 babies are born with sickle cell disease each year.
The GoG-Novartis partnership aims to improve and extend the lives of people with SAM through a comprehensive approach to screening and diagnosis, disease treatment and management, training and education, as well as 'strengthening basic and clinical and scientific research capabilities.
Specifically, partners will collaborate on field trials and implementation of MSC treatment guidelines, the establishment of centers of excellence in all regions, and the implementation of neonatal screening in these centers.
Speaking after the announcement of the Memorandum of Understanding on the sidelines of the current World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in 2019, Mr. Agyemang-Manu said: is confident that this collaboration would help improve health care and reduce the number of preventable deaths.
"We are pleased to work with the Sickle Cell Foundation and Novartis to fight sickle cell disease in Ghana. We are committed to placing DCD among the priorities of our national health program and dedicating the necessary resources to it. Together, we can make an active contribution to ending the preventable deaths of newborns and children under the age of five, as stated in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, "he said.
Dr. Anthony Nsiah-Asare, Executive Director of the Ghana Health Service, welcomed the collaboration, noting that the partnership with Novartis would bring many benefits to people with sickle cell disease, including reduced treatment costs and reduced costs. access to advanced research equipment. .
"Sickle cell disease is a centuries-old disease that has resulted in many preventable deaths over the years. This partnership will help Ghana's health service tackle it head-on and make its treatment affordable and sustainable. "
Dr. Nsiah-Asare said the partnership would help improve access for Ghanaian patients to high-quality treatment. Novartis is committed to testing innovative sickle treatments in the country, which would also provide data for future studies.
"Ghana should be the gateway to research on sickle cell disease in Africa," he said.
The partnership has already begun to bear fruit. Dr. Nsiah-Asare revealed that Novartis had submitted, in 2018, Hydroxyurea, the current standard treatment for the treatment of severe CSM, for the purpose of registration for the specific indication of the CSM in Ghana. Since then, the Food and Drugs Authority of Ghana has issued a marketing authorization (October 25, 2018), making it the first time that hydroxyurea is available for patients of this indication in Ghana .
"Discussions are underway to include the drug and badociated laboratory tests in the national health insurance scheme, as well as to prioritize it as a national program, with direct distribution by the Ministry of Health", he added.
Hydroxyurea therapy is expected to begin reaching hundreds of patients in 2019.
Professor Kwaku Ohene-Frempong, President of the Sickle Cell Foundation of Ghana, also expressed confidence in the benefits of collaboration.
"Our biggest challenge is that we simply do not diagnose early enough. Ghana is one of the few African countries to have a neonatal screening program. But there is not one country testing all children for SCD. As a result, we lose hundreds of thousands of babies each year without even being diagnosed with the disease. This collaboration would bring the world's attention to this disease. "
Vas Narasimhan, MD, CEO of Novartis, explained: "Novartis is committed in the long term to ensuring that its medicines and healthcare in general are accessible to as many patients as possible. . We hope that we will continue to reinvent the treatment of this disease to provide better medicines and better care for sickle cell patients in Africa and around the world. I am proud that Novartis is committed to this challenge. "
Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia, who attended the forum, thanked Novartis for its collaboration with the Government of Ghana to improve access to quality health care.
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