A team from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi (KNUST), led by Professor Priscilla Kolibea Mante of the Department of Pharmacology, has secured $5.1 million from Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited’s Global Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Programme to strengthen climate-resilient health systems through the pharmacy workforce.
The funding will support PharmAdapt, an initiative that seeks to strengthen the capacity of pharmacists to respond to the health effects of climate change. The project will be hosted by KNUST’s Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.
Professor Mante serves as Team Lead, with Professor Edmund Ekuadzi and Professor Samuel Asare-Nkansah serving as Technical Portfolio Leads.
PharmAdapt will position pharmacists as frontline contributors to climate-responsive healthcare in Ghana by building their capacity in climate-related health risks, emergency preparedness, climate-responsive pharmaceutical care and environmentally sustainable pharmacy practices.
The initiative will also develop tools, standards and approaches to help pharmaceutical systems anticipate, prepare for and respond to the health consequences of climate change. Lessons from the project are expected to inform similar interventions in other settings.
“Climate change is increasingly shaping the health challenges our communities face, yet the pharmacy workforce remains an underutilised part of the response. 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. Beyond training individuals, our ambition is to build approaches that become embedded within pharmacy practice and can be scaled beyond Ghana,” Professor Mante said.
The Vice-Chancellor of KNUST, Professor Christian Agyare, described the partnership as an opportunity to strengthen the contribution of pharmacists to climate action and health-system resilience.
“Takeda's support gives us an excellent opportunity to put pharmacists right at the heart of how we respond to climate change and health. Through PharmAdapt project we will train our pharmacists, prepare them for emergencies, and build standards that will last well beyond this project,” Professor Agyare said.
He added that the partnership would enable KNUST to develop practical tools and lessons relevant to countries across West Africa and beyond.
The award will bring together KNUST’s expertise in pharmaceutical sciences, health research, workforce development and innovation to address the intersection of climate change and health.
Through PharmAdapt, the University will work to build a pharmacy workforce better prepared to respond to emerging climate-related health challenges and support more resilient and sustainable health systems.
About the Takeda Global CSR Programme
PharmAdapt is one of four new collaborations selected under Takeda’s 2026 Global CSR Programme to advance climate-resilient health systems.
Takeda announced a combined commitment of $22.2 million to the four initiatives, which will support 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 and address different aspects of climate-related health-system resilience.
KNUST received $5.1 million to strengthen the pharmacy workforce as frontline health workers and advance climate-responsive care through capacity building and environmentally sustainable pharmacy practices in Ghana.
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.
