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UGMC to hold benefit concert to raise $5,000,000 towards the completion of a Clinical Trials Unit at the centre
On Wednesday, November 30th, 2023, the University of Ghana Medical Centre (UGMC) met with the media to give more information on the centre’s Clinical Trials Unit project, and why it is important for Ghanaians to donate towards it.
The UGMC, Ghana’s only quaternary medical facility with the mandate to provide high-end medical care, training, and research has embraced this challenge by creating the Medical and Scientific Research Centre (MSRC), which seeks to perform the necessary clinical trials to bring new treatments – local and foreign to Ghanaians.
A key pillar of this mandate is to perform research to bring new treatments and medical devices that will enhance the health of Ghanaians and the world at large. The UGMC To achieve this goal, there is an urgent need for a state-of-the-art in-patient clinical trials unit (CTU) and clinical trials laboratories where the trials will be performed safely to international standards. A modern CTU will enhance Ghana’s development in many ways.
First, it will ensure that medications taken by Ghanaians for chronic diseases such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and cancer are suitable for our population. Many medications being used in Africa had trials done in Europe or America, where the genetic makeup of the trial participants is different. For instance, it is now clear that certain common medications for high blood pressure do not work as well in black patients. This situation could have been prevented if the trials for these medicines had been done here. Many pharmaceutical companies want to do trials in Africa, but the facilities and personnel to do the trials are often unavailable. This is why UGMC is positioning itself as the hub for international in-patient clinical trials in Africa. Second, though herbal products have the potential to cure many ailments, scientific trials have not been done.
A proper CTU in Ghana can do these trials to international standards and help validate some of these treatments. Something produced in Ghana will be accessible to the vast majority of Ghanaians. Third, many cancer treatments are now personalized to the patient’s genetics. These treatments cannot come to Ghana to help our patients unless we can do the trials and associated laboratory tests right here in Ghana. Currently, Ghana and many African countries are missing out on these treatments.
A hospital-based CTU at UGMC will fill this important gap. Finally, a modern CTU will enable us to train the next generation of Ghanaian clinical trialists. The COVID-19 pandemic has taught us that we must train and perform our own trials. The hesitancy in taking up the COVID-19 vaccine is partly because trials were not done here. However, the performance of clinical trials requires specific training and skills often not taught during the training of health personnel. Unfortunately, Ghana has very few doctors and other health personnel trained to perform clinical trials, most of whom are retired or near retirement. There is an urgent need to train more personnel – doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and trial coordinators for the country. A modern CTU at UGMC will enable us to train these personnel.
So far, the centre has allocated a whole ward wing as an in-patient trial space, allocated a large space in our clinical building for development into a modern trials laboratory, secured partnership with MDS-Lancet-Cerba who will partner with the most modern analyzers – millions of dollars investment. Some of the analyzers already arrived in Ghana.
WHAT WE NEED NOW – IMMEDIATELY
– Prepare the allocated space to international (ISO) standard so the machines can be placed. Kindly refer to attached list.
– Equip some of the rooms in the trials ward with modern machines.2
WHAT WE NEED – LONG TERM
– A research building dedicated to clinical and translational studies to bring new treatments to Ghanaians.
WHAT YOUR ORGANIZATION CAN DO:
– Contribute cash to enable us meet our target of 5 million dollars needed to prepare space for the trial laboratory and equip the trials ward
– Contribute materials that can help prepare the trials laboratory space (see attached list)
– Contribute equipment for the trials ward (see attached list)
– Commit to sponsoring a research building for UGMC
The UGMC has a large empty space in our clinical building that needs to be transformed into a state-of-the-art modern Clinical Trials Unit (CTU). So far, UGMC has been able to raise a little over $335,000. However, we need almost USD5,000,000.00 (tabulated below as per quotations received from vendors) to prepare the space needed for the clinical trials unit.
Towards the achievement of this goal, the UGMC is organising a benefit concert on December 8th, 2023 to raise funds.
The concert will feature performances by Joe Mettle, KODA, Nii Okai, Joyfull Way Inc, and the UGMC Choir.
You can make your donations now via https://ugmedicalcentre.org/donate or via the shortcode *887*222#
