WITH a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between EU, Guyana and other partners, work is underway in an existing partnership to move Guyana closer to becoming a hub for the manufacturing of pharmaceuticals and vaccines.

This is according to Minister of Health, Dr Frank Anthony, who was at the time discussing the various partnerships in the health sector that Guyana has established, while making remarks at the official launch of the government’s Universal Health Voucher programme.

To this end, he noted that recently when President Dr. Irfaan Ali attended the CARICOM Heads of Government Meeting in Barbados, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between Guyana, Barbados and the European Union (EU).

This MoU is aimed at preparing Guyana to become a hub for the manufacturing of pharmaceuticals and vaccines.

Added to this, the health minister said, “We are looking at developing a stronger regulatory institution and with that stronger regulatory institution then it would be accepted by other jurisdictions.”

Further, Dr Anthony indicated that Lithuania has been identified as one of the countries that would offer the technical capacity building in that regard.

As part of the funding set aside with this new MoU, academic partnerships with various universities in the EU have been catered for, and as such, a number of people will receive training.

In the official announcement following the heads of government meeting in February, the EU noted that it is taking significant steps to advance health security and economic resilience in the Caribbean with an €8.9 million investment in pharmaceutical production.

The announcement added that the initiative will strengthen regional health manufacturing capacity through a combination of regulatory cooperation, research partnerships and technology transfers, benefitting the Caribbean region’s long-term health sustainability.

“A joint declaration was signed by the Governments of Guyana, Barbados, and Lithuania to cooperate in bringing drug regulators in the Caribbean to World Health Organization (WHO) Level 3 maturity, under the EU’s PharmaNext programme,” the official announcement said.

Guyana has been in talks with the EU for quite some time in relation to facilitating possible pharmaceutical production here.

In 2023, the EU Ambassador to Guyana, Rene Van Nes, told the Guyana Chronicle that they have experts in the field that came to Guyana to look at the possibilities of creating production facilities in the pharmaceutical sector.

The following year, Van Nes told local journalists that the EU will assist Guyana and Barbados to establish the regulation needed to manufacture pharmaceuticals.