The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research–Water Research Institute (CSIR-WRI), in partnership with Kantanka Herbal Pharmaceuticals and Research Centre, has secured a €125,000 grant under the PharmaVax Ghana Programme to strengthen the scientific evidence base for the development of herbal interventions for alcohol-related liver disease.

The grant was formally presented at the “Research Meets Manufacturing” Award Ceremony held in Accra on 19 August 2026, jointly hosted by the National Vaccine Institute (NVI) and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).

The consortium will implement the project titled “Harnessing Medicinal Plants for Hepatoprotection: A Novel Approach to Alcohol-Induced Liver Damage.”

Led by researchers from the Biomedical and Public Health Research Unit (BPHRU) of CSIR-WRI, the project seeks to harness Ghana’s medicinal plant resources and traditional knowledge to identify promising plant candidates and subject them to rigorous scientific evaluation for their potential to protect the liver against alcohol-induced damage.

The project is particularly significant because it brings together research and industry from the outset. CSIR-WRI will contribute its expertise in biomedical and public health research, experimental pharmacology and scientific validation, while Kantanka Herbal Pharmaceuticals and Research Centre will bring experience in herbal medicine production, product development and manufacturing. This research–industry partnership reflects one of the central objectives of the PharmaVax Ghana Programme: strengthening the connection between scientific research and local pharmaceutical manufacturing so that promising innovations can progress beyond the laboratory towards practical health products.

The CSIR-WRI/Kantanka project is one of eight Ghanaian research and development initiatives selected from 43 applications under the competitive PharmaVax Ghana funding call. Collectively, the eight projects received approximately €2 million, with participating Ghanaian partners contributing additional resources towards implementation.The PharmaVax Ghana Programme is implemented by GIZ and supported by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the European Union (EU). It seeks to strengthen pharmaceutical research and development, skills, regulatory systems, private-sector participation, technology transfer and local manufacturing in Ghana.

Speaking at the award ceremony, Ghana’s Minister of Health, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, emphasised the need to move scientific discoveries beyond research laboratories towards validated and locally manufactured health products. The National Vaccine Institute similarly highlighted the importance of bringing Ghana’s scientific expertise and growing pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity together to develop health solutions responsive to national needs.

For CSIR-WRI, the award further demonstrates the Institute’s growing contribution to multidisciplinary research at the intersection of environment, biomedical science and public health, and its commitment to translating scientific research into solutions with societal and economic relevance. Furthermore, the award represents more than funding for a research project. It provides an opportunity for CSIR-WRI and Kantanka to demonstrate how Ghana’s scientific expertise, medicinal plant heritage and local manufacturing capacity can be brought together to advance evidence-based herbal medicine development.

Watch: Harnessing Medicinal Plants for Hepatoprotection

As part of the award ceremony, the CSIR-WRI/Kantanka consortium produced a short video introducing the motivation behind the project, the research approach, the partnership between the two institutions and the potential contribution of the research to Ghana’s herbal medicine and pharmaceutical innovation landscape.