A team from the West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP), led by its Director, Prof. Gordon Awandare, paid a working visit to Atlantic Lifesciences Ltd.
The visit, which was at the instance of Atlantic Lifesciences Limited, was to introduce WACCBIP to their facility and to explore possible areas for future collaboration.
Atlantic Lifesciences Ltd is a sister company of Pharmanova Ltd. which currently has the biggest manufacturing unit for intra-veinous (IV) fluids in West Africa located in Prampram in the Greater Accra region of Ghana. Atlantic Lifesciences Ltd. also manufactures inhalation anaesthetics, eye, ear, and nasal drops as well as vaccines and antiserum. Their range of infusions includes Metronidazole injection (NOVAGYL), Paracetamol infusion (NOVAMOL), Ciprofloxacin injection (NOVACIP), Ofloxacin infusion (NOVAFLOX) and Levofloxacin infusion (LEVOXIN).
Mr. Dhananjay Tripathi, the Chief Executive Officer, who was in the company of Dr. M.D Khubchandani and Ms. Aparna Tripathi, Technical Director and Director respectively of Atlantic Lifesciences Ltd., said their objectives are to partner with health service providers to help patients with varying ailments; innovate with a focus on quality and research to accelerate production from bench to bedside; and to deliver on high quality global products within reach in Ghana and sub-Saharan Africa. He further explained that plans are at an advanced stage in their preparation towards producing vaccines and antiserum locally, with civil works already in place, while equipment are expected to arrive by the end of the year. He indicated that it is in this area of local development of vaccines and antiserum that Atlantic Lifesciences Ltd. is looking forward to collaborating with WACCBIP and its highly trained faculty and scientists.
Mr. Tripathi also mentioned that Atlantic Lifesciences Ltd. is registered and has certifications from all the relevant state regulatory agencies including the Food and Drugs Authority, the Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana, and the Ghana Standards Authority.
On his part, Prof. Gordon Awandare explained the mandate of WACCBIP which among others include building capacity in the area of providing a full training pipeline from graduate internships, through Master’s and PhD programmes to postdoctoral mentorship fellowships. He added that WACCBIP also supports public health agencies with real-time pathogen data for effective disease surveillance; and discovering new compounds that can be used to develop new drugs. He welcomed any opportunity for collaboration and said that WACCBIP is looking forward to having Atlantic Lifesciences Ltd., as a private sector collaborator.
The other members of the WACCBIP team included Prof. George Obeng Adjei -Director of Research at the Office of Research, Innovation and Development; Dr. Lydia Mosi -Head of Logistics and Technology; Dr. Peter Quashi – Virologist and Senior Research Fellow; Dr. Peck Dorleku -Industrial Liaison; and Dr. Asamoah-Kusi – Senior Research Fellow -all took turns to ask questions.
The team was taken on a tour of the main facility which consists of a water treatment plant capable of converting raw water through the process of chemically sanitized reverse osmosis (CSRO) into soft water; then through the process of electrodeionization (EDI) into purified water; and finally, through a multi-column distillation plant (MCDP) it is converted into water for injection (WFI). Overall, the plant has a production capacity of 7000 and 5000 litres per hour of purified water and water for injection respectively.
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