Dr Arnold Forkuo Donkor a senior lecturer at the Department of Pharmacology, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST),  and a team of scientists from the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR), Department of Chemistry – University of Ghana in collaboration with their counterparts from the University of Dundee and the University of Cape Town have received Funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (B&MGF) to improve existing drug discovery capabilities in Ghana.

The project will leverage existing relationships and facilities to further develop human and infrastructure capacity for drug discovery in Ghana, towards the establishment of a drug discovery hub within the sub-region. The initial focus will be on malaria but once established, the hub will be expanded to other diseases, such as tuberculosis (TB) and COVID-19.  These efforts will leverage the interaction with Medicines for Malaria Ventures (MMV), training provided by the Wellcome Centre at the University of Dundee and Holistic Drug Discovery and Development (H3D) Centre at the University of Cape Town (UCT) in South Africa, and Grand Challenges Africa Drug Discovery network.

Speaking on the project, Dr Forkuo explained that drug discovery is the process of identifying chemical entities that have the potential to become therapeutic agents and hence the drive to find treatments and cures for diseases like malaria should be greatest where the impact is highest – i.e, on the African continent. He added that the project is aimed at establishing a drug discovery capability within Ghana, capable of undertaking hit discovery, hits to lead and lead optimisation across a range of diseases relevant to Ghana and the West African region. He highlighted the various areas of the research which include synthesizing novel antimalarial compounds in the laboratory, testing for anti-malaria properties and determining the drug-likeness of these compounds (drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics). “This will be the first drug discovery hub in West Africa that will move compounds from the early stages into clinical phases” – he added.

The project will also help in building the capacity of which the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have delegated Dr Susan Winks and Jessica Akester of the Holistic Drug Discovery and Development (H3D) Centre at the University of Cape Town (UCT) in South Africa which has 12 years experience in drug discovery to mentor the researchers in the creation of a discovery hub in Ghana. They paid a courtesy visit to the Provost of the College of Health Sciences - KNUST, Professor Christian Agyare and also had a tour of the facilities at the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.