A team of researchers from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, led by Professor Priscilla Kolibea Mante, has secured a $5.1 million grant from Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited to strengthen Ghana’s health system against the growing health threats posed by climate change.
The funding, awarded under Takeda’s 2026 Global Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Programme, will support PharmAdapt, an initiative designed to transform pharmacists into a stronger frontline force in responding to climate-related health challenges.
The project will be hosted by KNUST’s Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.
Professor Mante, of the Department of Pharmacology, is the Team Lead, while Professor Edmund Ekuadzi and Professor Samuel Asare-Nkansah are serving as Technical Portfolio Leads.
Through PharmAdapt, the KNUST team will build the capacity of pharmacists in climate-related health risks, emergency preparedness, climate-responsive pharmaceutical care and environmentally sustainable pharmacy practices.
The project will also develop tools, standards and approaches to help pharmaceutical systems anticipate, prepare for and respond to the health consequences of climate change, with lessons from Ghana expected to inform similar interventions elsewhere.
Professor Mante said pharmacists had largely remained an underutilised component of the response to climate-related health challenges.
“Climate change is increasingly shaping the health challenges our communities face, yet the pharmacy workforce remains an underutilised part of the response,” she said.
“PharmAdapt gives us an opportunity to change this by equipping pharmacists with the knowledge, tools and systems they need to contribute meaningfully to climate-resilient healthcare.”
She said the project went beyond training individual pharmacists, with the team seeking to develop systems that could become embedded in pharmacy practice and eventually be scaled beyond Ghana.
“Beyond training individuals, our ambition is to build approaches that become embedded within pharmacy practice and can be scaled beyond Ghana,” Professor Mante added.
KNUST Vice-Chancellor, Professor Christian Agyare, said the Takeda partnership presented an opportunity to place pharmacists at the centre of Ghana’s response to the intersection between climate change and health.
“Takeda’s support gives us an excellent opportunity to put pharmacists right at the heart of how we respond to climate change and health,” Professor Agyare said.
“Through PharmAdapt project we will train our pharmacists, prepare them for emergencies, and build standards that will last well beyond this project.”
He said the initiative would also enable KNUST to develop practical tools and lessons that could be relevant to countries across West Africa and beyond.
Part of $22.2m global commitment
PharmAdapt is one of four new collaborations selected under Takeda’s 2026 Global CSR Programme to advance climate-resilient health systems.
Takeda has committed a combined $22.2 million to the four initiatives, which cover locally led approaches to strengthening health systems in communities vulnerable to the effects of climate change.
The selected collaborations involve initiatives in Ghana, Nepal, Honduras, Peru, Egypt and Lebanon, addressing different dimensions of climate-related health-system resilience.
KNUST’s $5.1 million allocation is specifically targeted at strengthening the pharmacy workforce as frontline health workers and advancing climate-responsive care through capacity building and environmentally sustainable pharmacy practices.
The initiative brings together KNUST’s expertise in pharmaceutical sciences, health research, workforce development and innovation to tackle the increasingly important link between climate change and health.
Takeda’s Global CSR Programme supports long-term partnerships aimed at strengthening health systems and expanding sustainable access to healthcare, with projects selected with the participation of Takeda employees globally.
Source: www.kumasimail.com
