Accra, May 27, GNA – Mr Kwaku Agyemang-Manu, Minister of Health, says COA Mixture can now be prescribed to patients in health facilities across the nation.
The Minister said patients could now opt for herbal medicine care whenever they visited the hospital due to the inclusion of some selected herbal medicines in the Essential Medicines List by the Ministry of Health.
He stated that a greater percentage of the country’s rural population was dependent on plant medicine for the treatment of diseases and maintenance of good health.
Mr Agyemang-Manu, speaking at the relaunch of COA Mixture in Accra, said the Government provided an enabling climate for plant medicine to successfully compete with orthodox medicine to contribute to the realisation of the Sustainable Development Goal three of “achieving health for All at all” by 2030.
He said it was time for institutional collaborations to improve plant medicine for worldwide acceptance and that “manufacturers must collaborate effectively with the Ministry’s Scientists, Engineers, Pharmacists, and regulatory agencies”.
Mr Agyemang-Manu, challenged other herbal producers to devote some of their resources to study saying, “if COA did it and it’s paying off today, you can also do same”.
Mr Alan Kyeremanten, the Minister of Trade and Industry, applauded the Company and other manufacturers as their enterprise would create job opportunities for the unemployed, especially the youth.
He said the Government had an interest to promote plant-based medicines nationwide and would support the initiative to reduce the rate of importation.
Mr Kyeremanten added that the Government would support manufacturing companies to advance their standards to that of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) so that their products could be exported.
“There are only three companies here that have reached the WHO standard and the Government wishes that COA would also get to that stage,” he said.
Professor Samuel Ato Duncan, the Founder, COA Research and Manufacturing Company Limited, said the company would continue to develop natural products to treat some of the diseases that the world found it difficult to treat and as well improve the use of plant medicine globally.
He said the product was for a healthy living and a 100 per cent natural product from plants and without artificial preservatives and that the company had acquired 1000 acres of land in Ashanti region to cultivate raw materials and would need an additional 9000 acres to meet international market demands.
Source: Ghana News Agency
