Centre for Plant Medicine gets GHc1.8m to develop COVID-19 treatment
The COVID-19 National Trust Fund Thursday signed an agreement to provide the Centre for Plant Medicine Research (CPMR), Mampong Akwapim, with some GHc1.8 million to develop herbal products to fight Sars-Cov-2 and the COVID-19 viruses.
The financial support is to enable the CPMR to undertake full-scale research and development into two of its anti-viral and immunomodulatory herbal products- Immune and Ampoforte- that have been registered by the Foods and Drugs Authority to treat the Sars-Cov-2 and COVID-19 diseases.
At a ceremony at the COVID-19 Command Operations Room at the Jubilee House, Accra, Justice Sophia Akufo, Chairperson of the Trust Fund, extolled the vital role of the CPRM in the integration of herbal medicine in the health delivery system in Ghana.
She said the innate national value of the work of the CPMR was the reason the Trust Fund was supporting the Centre to develop the two products and any other relevant potential initiative aimed at discovering efficacious local solutions to the country’s health challenges.
Justice Akufo said the donation would aid the CPMR to carry out further pre-clinical studies on the two FDA registered products and six other medical plant extracts to establish pre-clinical efficacy against the virus, and the preparation of immune support and anti-viral products against COVID-19.
She noted that with COVID-19 continuing to spread, “we dare not lose our guard only to be taken by surprise,” adding that the current spike in infections is “ample evidence that we are not yet out of the tenacious grip of the pandemic.”
Whilst continuing with it existing support activities, the Chairperson stressed that the Trust Fund would leverage its mandate to back new health research initiatives and would collaborate with relevant institutions to explore innovations relating to COVID-19 with the resources at its disposal.
She urged the Centre to diligently and expeditiously apply the funds for the purpose it had been given, and appealed to the public and private corporate bodies, religious organizations, well-meaning individuals, civil society organizations and other identifiable groups for more support to fight the COVID-19 disease.
Prof. Alex Asase, Executive Director, CPMR, expressed gratitude to the Trust Fund for the gesture, which he said was “timely and significant.”
He emphasized that given the requisite support, the Centre is in a prime position to develop world-class efficacious herbal products that could earn the country huge foreign income and thus reduce significantly the importation bills on drugs.
Prof. Asase said the Centre had, since the onset of the pandemic, carried out several studies using internally generated funds, culminating in the development of the two immune boosters, which preliminary studies had shown that the products possessed anti-viral properties.
He said the financial support from the Fund would enable the CPMR carry out further studies on the products and reformulate them into remedies for viral infections including COVID-19.