The Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana (PSGH) has held high-level discussions with the Ghana AIDS Commission (GAC) on how pharmacists and pharmacies can be strategically integrated into Ghana’s national response to HIV. The engagement took place during a working visit by a Ghana AIDS Commission delegation to the PSGH Secretariat at Baastona on Thursday, 23 July 2026.

The GAC delegation was led by its Director-General, Dr Kharmacelle Prosper Akanbong, and included the Director of Operations, Mr Charles Oduro, and the Director of Technical Services, Mr Fred Nana Poku. The PSGH was represented by its Executive Secretary, Rev. Dr (Pharm.) Dennis Sena Awitty, and Strategic Plan Manager, Dr (Pharm.) Harry Amoaning Okyere as well as the head of Finance & Accounting, Mr. Eric Forson. The meeting provided an opportunity for the two organisations to consider a structured partnership through which Ghana’s extensive network of pharmacists and community pharmacies could support HIV prevention, testing, treatment, adherence and public education.

The discussions are particularly timely as Ghana seeks to accelerate progress towards ending AIDS as a public health threat while addressing continuing challenges relating to undiagnosed infections, treatment access, stigma, misinformation, financing and the sustainability of externally supported programmes.

According to the Ghana AIDS Commission, an estimated 337,435 people were living with HIV in Ghana, while approximately 13,951 new infections occurred in 2025—an average of about 38 new infections every day. Women account for about 65.7 per cent of people living with HIV, while young people aged 15 to 24 contribute approximately 27.5 per cent of new infections. These figures reinforce the need to extend appropriately regulated HIV services beyond conventional health facilities and closer to the communities where people live, work and seek routine healthcare.

Pharmacies as accessible HIV service points

During the meeting, the PSGH presented proposals demonstrating how pharmacists and pharmacies could complement the work of hospitals, clinics, laboratories, civil-society organisations and community-based HIV programmes. The Society observed that community pharmacies are among the most accessible points of contact within Ghana’s healthcare system. They generally operate for longer hours than many conventional health facilities, do not require appointments and are frequently visited by people seeking medicines, health information and advice.

These characteristics could enable pharmacies to reach people who might not readily attend an HIV clinic because of distance, inconvenience, fear of being identified, stigma or the perception that they are not at risk.

Discussions centred on how pharmacists and community pharmacies could complement existing HIV services by supporting prevention and public education, addressing misinformation and stigma, facilitating HIV testing and referrals, and improving access to PrEP, PEP and antiretroviral therapy. The parties also explored differentiated service-delivery approaches, including ART refill distribution and “drop-in medicine” models through appropriately trained and accredited pharmacies, recognising their accessibility and potential to bring confidential HIV prevention, treatment and adherence support closer to communities.

Local production of antiretroviral medicines

In line with local pharmaceutical manufacturing as a key pillar of its Strategic Plan, the PSGH advocated for the domestic production of antiretroviral medicines to strengthen medicine security and reduce dependence on imports. In response, the Ghana AIDS Commission delegation indicated that a coordinated subregional manufacturing strategy was being developed under which participating countries could specialise in selected antiretroviral products based on their capacities and comparative advantages, instead of each country producing the same medicines.

Such coordination could create economies of scale, reduce unnecessary duplication and generate sufficiently large and predictable markets to sustain local manufacturers. Governments could then support uptake through coordinated purchasing and pooled procurement. The approach is especially relevant in the context of the African Medicines Agency, which is intended to strengthen regulatory cooperation and improve access to safe, effective and quality-assured medical products across the continent. Regulatory harmonisation could make it easier for a medicine approved and manufactured to an acceptable standard in one African country to access markets in other participating countries.

The proposed direction also aligns with the African Pooled Procurement Mechanism being advanced by Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. By aggregating demand across countries, pooled procurement can improve purchasing power, provide manufacturers with more predictable orders, reduce fragmented buying and support greater access to African-produced health products. Africa CDC has identified pooled procurement and local manufacturing as mutually reinforcing components of the continent’s health-security and self-reliance agenda.

From proposals to an implementation framework

The meeting ended with a shared recognition that pharmacists and pharmacies represent an underused national resource in the response to HIV. The proposals are expected to inform further consideration by the Ghana AIDS Commission as it develops policies and strategies for the next phase of the national response.

For PSGH, the engagement reflects the Society’s broader commitment to positioning pharmacists as essential contributors to primary healthcare and public health—not only as custodians of medicines, but also as educators, screeners, counsellors, referral partners, adherence supporters and trusted healthcare professionals within communities. The discussions opened an important pathway towards a more decentralised, accessible and people-centred HIV response—one that brings reliable information, prevention tools, testing and treatment support closer to the public while maintaining national standards for quality, confidentiality and patient safety.