Call on govt to promote bio-medicine (Page 47)

Story: Lucy Adoma Yeboah
A United States-based Ghanaian scientist, Dr Peter Atadja, has appealed to the Government of Ghana to have interest in bio-medicine and promote it, since the country’s diverse forest resource gives it an advantage over many of the countries that are currently benefiting from that field of medicine.
He said with Ghana’s rich history of traditional medicine, the country stood the chance of gaining immensely, since foreign companies paid high premiums and future royalties for medicines that came from natural sources.
In an interview with the Daily Graphic in Accra, he said when efforts were made toward improving on the country’s traditional medicine, Ghana would attract major sponsors who were ready to sponsor the development of new medicines to benefit mankind.
Speaking in the company of Mr Abraham Quarcoo, a lecturer at the Accra Polytechnic and a member of the Ghana Bio-medical Society, Dr Atadja said, “We cannot go anywhere with the kind of herbal medicines produced and sold in vehicles which are said to cure all manner of diseases without any scientific proof”.
Dr Atadja, who is currently a Group Leader and a Senior Research Investigator at the Novartis Institute for Bio-medical Research in the US, explained that as there already existed in Ghana institutes and expertise in natural products, the country could easily collaborate with other Ghanaian scientists in the Diaspora in newer technologies.
He stated that a visit to the Centre for Research into Plant Medicine at Mampong Akuapem in Eastern Region confirmed that Ghana was leading many other countries in the area of natural medicine, adding that it was refreshing to note that the centre had both clinic and basic science units to complement each other.
He said unlike other developed countries where researchers had to travel elsewhere to experiment with plants, there abounded a wide variety of plants in Ghana that could readily be researched into.
He stressed that institutions should set aside about US$100 billion to help find new medicine globally and urged Ghanaian researchers to take advantage of such moves to come out with new traditional medicine of international standards.
He stated that natural product drugs such as those provided in bio-medicine offered a lot of opportunities in the drug discovery process.
Dr Atadja pointed out that he was ready to help establish a centre of excellence in Ghana to promote further research into bio-medicine and called on Parliament to institute and implement what he termed “a brave science policy”.
As part of a paper that he presented in Accra, Dr Atadja recommended that Parliament should legislate permanent funding for scientific research for competitive grants and suggested setting aside one per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for such a venture.
He pointed out that to achieve the desired objective, there was the need for a strong and passionate lobbying of policy makers made up of preferably, scientific and professional associations to ensure that research activities found it rightful place in society.
He called for the promotion of science education through all the levels of education in addition to proper support for graduate education in science.
He said challenges facing bio-medical science in Ghana included little tradition of translational bio-medical research and development, inadequate support structure such as non-availability of reagents and equipment, among others.
He also mentioned little emphasis placed on basic science education at the graduate level, lack of funding for basic research and low levels of remuneration and recognition for scientists.
He also talked about brain drain, the problem of pseudo-science and superstition attached to traditional medicine practice and poor scientific intellectual property regimes.
Dr Atadja, who said he had developed a bio-medicine that decreased the growth of cancer cells in humans, expressed the hope that the medicine, which had gone through all the stages of trials, would be approved by the US Food and Drugs Administration (FDA).