The Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana says the country’s over-reliance on imported drugs for public use poses a growing threat to national security.
Currently, about 70 per cent of medicines used in hospitals and community pharmacies in Ghana are imported, with only 30 per cent produced locally.
The President of the Society, Dr. (Pharm.) Paul Owusu Donkor, is calling on government and stakeholders to strategically invest in the local pharmaceutical industry to boost domestic production.
He warned that continued dependence on global supply chains exposes the country to external shocks and vulnerabilities.
“If we continue to rely on global supply chain systems for our medicines, then we are compromising our national security issues,” he cautioned.
He made the remarks during a commemorative engagement at the Manhyia Palace in Kumasi as part of activities marking the Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana’s 90th anniversary.
Dr. Donkor noted that achieving a target of 70 per cent local production would require deliberate investment in manufacturing infrastructure, capital, land access, technology, and human resource development.
He added that strengthening local production could position Ghana as a pharmaceutical manufacturing hub in West Africa.
“Health is wealth, we have said many times. Now, pharmaceutical care needs are also a national security issue. We want to see a Ghana that does 70% of its pharmaceutical care needs,” he said.
The Society also raised concern over the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), partly attributing the public health challenge to the misuse of medicines and the circulation of counterfeit and substandard drugs.
Each year, an estimated 4,900 to 6,200 people in Ghana die from antimicrobial resistance-related infections.
Dr. Donkor explained that underserved rural and peri-urban communities remain particularly vulnerable due to gaps in healthcare access, which are often exploited by illegal medicine vendors.
“Sometimes the underserved peri-urban and rural areas become a void that is filled by medicine peddlers, counterfeit, fake, spurious and substandard medicines,” he said.
He called for stricter surveillance by regulators, including the Pharmacy Council and the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), to intensify enforcement against the manufacture, importation, and sale of substandard medicines.
“The regulator must continue to crack the whip on persons that bring these falsified medicines into our supply chain system. That is how we can uproot the menace of antimicrobial resistance,” he said.
He emphasized that pharmacists remain critical to antimicrobial stewardship, but stressed that the fight against AMR requires coordinated action by regulators, health institutions, and government.
“If a medicine is not in the hands of a pharmacist but falls into the hands of quacks, then we will lose the fight against antimicrobial resistance,” he cautioned.
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