The School of Pharmacy,University of Ghana in partnership with GIZ, Entrance Pharmaceuticals & Research Centre & The Thai Chulalongkorn University

The local pharmaceutical industry in Ghana and also the West African Sub-region is faced with various challenges, including a shortfall of a highly qualified human resource base in the pharmaceutical manufacturing sector necessitating importation of key personnel with its attendant high costs and a lack of hands-on training facilities in pharmaceutical production and quality control.

Through a GIZ coordinated project titled Cross-Sector Cooperation Fund (Polifond) Project:  “Access to high quality and affordable medicines in Africa and South East Asia” multiple factors that impact people’s ability to purchase or freely access medicines and other health products such as vaccines are being addressed. The project endeavours to contribute to the fulfilment of the human right to health by improving the prerequisites for the availability and affordability of medicines and medical devices by poor people in rural areas in these regions. The project focuses on three main areas of intervention: supporting policy coherence

1. Strengthening the regulatory environment
2. The quality assurance of health products
3. Promoting local production of medicines

Discussions among experts from GIZ, the School of Pharmacy, University of Ghana, the Thai Chulalongkorn University and Entrance Pharmaceutical and Research Centre in 2015 identified  number of activities to pursue to achieve the project objectives. One activity, related to strengthening the local pharmaceutical industry is to train a pool of qualified human resources for the pharmaceutical sector in Ghana. The project will enable the University of Ghana School of Pharmacy to work with Chulalongkorn University in Thailand, Thailand on best practices, and for UGSOP to have insight into the Pharm D curriculum of the Chulalongkorn University in Thailand, which contains large sessions of practical training partly carried out in the University's own pilot plant, equipped with small scale equipment and containing a pilot clean-room as well as in local industries. The Chulalongkorn University in Thailand is keen on receiving University of Ghana Pharmacy students and Staff for study and research tours, respectively and long term collaboration.
The project also concretized an existing agreement between University of Ghana School of Pharmacy and Entrance Pharmaceuticals and Research Centre, a Ghanaian private sector institution.  During a visit by GIZ experts and UGSOP team, Entrance Pharmaceuticals and Research Centre affirmed it readiness for UGSOP to have access to its facilities to train pharmacy students to enable them have practical hands-on exposure to practical and industrial skill. The Ghanaian pharmaceutical private sector has a high interest in this project because they are partners as well as users of the programme.

Working meeting in Ghana with representatives from UGSOP, Entrance Pharmaceuticals and GIZ, 10-11 August 2015

Chulalongkorn University, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences

The Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Chulalongkorn University, was established in the reign of King Vajiravuth (Rama VI), who commanded Prince Rangsit of Chainad to set up a School of Pharmacy (commonly called in Thai as “Drug Preparation School”) in 1913. The school developed from then on through various phases before it became the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences of Chulalongkorn University. The Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences of Chulalongkorn University is a source of knowledge and academic-resource center, a leading pharmaceutical science institution that contributes to the country’s sustainable development. The Faculty is divided into seven divisions, including "Pharmaceutics & Industrial Pharmacy".


The School of Pharmacy has five academic departments, namely: Departments of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Pharmaceutics and Microbiology, Pharmacology and Toxicology, Pharmacognosy and Herbal Medicine and Pharmacy Practice and Clinical Pharmacy. UGSOP has plans of building capacity by developing and offering post graduate programs in all its five departments. In particular, UGSOP plans to develop a master program in Pharmaceutics (Industrial Production).

Tour the Entrance Pharmaceuticals, with representatives from UGSOP and GIZ, 11 August 2015