ACCRA, Ghana--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 14, 2026--
Revna Biosciences, Ghana's first precision medicine company, is contributing to transforming the landscape of healthcare in Ghana by offering advanced molecular tests for oncology, infectious diseases, etc. locally. Tests that were previously only available overseas due to technological constraints, often taking weeks to return results, are now accessible within the country and completed in a matter of days. This strategic move has reduced turnaround time for test results by up to 90%, a shift that translates directly into earlier diagnosis, timelier treatment decisions, and improved patient outcomes, while also making advanced diagnostics more affordable and accessible.
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Revna Biosciences is among a small number of ventures to have received and completed both an initial grant and a follow-on top-up award by the develoPPP Ventures programme. The develoPPP Ventures programme is a competitive, non-dilutive matching-fund grant initiative commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH. The programme supports innovative enterprises whose work improves livelihoods in developing economies by co-investing in growth, governance, and sustainable impact. Revna Biosciences exceeded every agreed commercial and impact indicator across both funding cycles.
In addition, multiple staff members completed structured professional training, strengthening the technical and operational capacity of the organization's laboratory and clinical teams.
RevnaBio further enhanced its operational resilience by integrating renewable energy solutions into its laboratory infrastructure, generating over 51,000 kWh of clean energy and reducing dependence on unreliable grid power.
A Milestone Built on More Than Funding
The develoPPP Ventures grant was not simply a source of early capital. It arrived at a formative moment in RevnaBio's development, when the foundations of the company's institutional infrastructure were still being laid.
Beyond financial co-investment, the programme provided expert guidance on governance design, financial control, operational risk management, and sustainability planning. RevnaBio's leadership team worked directly with GIZ-appointed advisors. The rigorous due diligence process required at each stage of the programme has also prepared the company to meet the standards expected by international pharmaceutical partners, research funders, and institutional investors.
Recognition from GIZ
Advancing the UN Sustainable Development Goals
The impact delivered through the develoPPP Ventures programme maps directly to multiple UN Sustainable Development Goals. RevnaBio's work advances good health and wellbeing, gender equality in healthcare access, economic opportunity and decent work, industrial innovation, reduced inequalities in diagnostic access, climate-responsible operations, and international partnership for development.
What Comes Next
Revna Biosciences continues to expand across precision medicine, molecular diagnostics, digital and AI-assisted pathology, biobanking, and clinical research infrastructure. The company is now the only laboratory in Africa to hold triple ISO accreditation from A2LA (the American Association for Laboratory Accreditation) and additionally holds an active Federalwide Assurance (FWA00036276) approved by the US Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP), valid through May 2031, and vendor qualification in the IQVIA network. RevnaBio is actively deepening its partnerships with global pharmaceutical companies, academic institutions, and public health agencies to accelerate Africa's role in precision medicine and clinical research.
About Revna Biosciences
Revna Biosciences is Ghana's first precision medicine company, founded in 2017 and headquartered in Accra, with its parent entity domiciled in Delaware, United States. RevnaBio provides molecular diagnostics, genomic testing, biobanking infrastructure, integrated pathology services, AI-assisted diagnostics, and clinical research support across Africa. The company partners with hospitals, research institutions, and global pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to deliver diagnostic services and generate high-quality genomic and clinical datasets that reflect Africa's genetic diversity.
RevnaBio is the only laboratory in Africa to hold triple ISO accreditation from A2LA (the American Association for Laboratory Accreditation): ISO 15189:2022 Medical Laboratories (Cert. No. 6990.01), ISO 20387:2018 Biobanking (Cert. No. 6990.02), and ISO/IEC 17043:2023 Proficiency Testing (Cert. No. 6990.03). RevnaBio additionally holds an active Federalwide Assurance (FWA00036276) from the US Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP), HHS.
About develoPPP Ventures and GIZ
The develoPPP Ventures programme is implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. develoPPP Ventures supports innovative private-sector enterprises in developing and emerging markets whose business models contribute to sustainable development. The programme provides non-dilutive co-investment alongside structured technical assistance, with the aim of scaling innovative solutions to make them accessible to more people.
The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH is a federal enterprise with worldwide operations. It supports the German Federal Government in the field of international cooperation for sustainable development and international education. GIZ assists people and societies in shaping their own future and improving their living conditions. www.giz.de
Your biology is unique. Your healthcare should be too.
Revna Biosciences | Precision Medicine | Ghana
Dr. Derrick E. Apkalu Co-Founder & CEO, Revna Biosciences
WASHINGTON (AP) — Less than two hours before President Donald Trump was set to impose 50% tariffs on $20 billion worth of Canadian imports, the United States and Canada reached a deal Tuesday that delays the sanctions, buying time for more negotiations and avoiding for now another strain in already-tense relations between the historic allies.
Trump posted late Tuesday on social media that he had paused the tariffs “based on the fact that Canada and the U.S.A., subject to the finalization of documents, have a DEAL!”
Trump’s import taxes would have hit about 5% of what Canada ships to the United States every year, including products ranging from hockey sticks to tongue depressors.
But the political impact would likely have been bigger than the economic one. Canada had threatened to retaliate against any new tariffs with levies of its own, aggravating a trade fight between countries that sold each other $880 billion worth of goods and services last year.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. and Canada are negotiating in an effort to reach a truce on tariffs before a 12:01 a.m. Wednesday deadline set by U.S. President Donald Trump.
If no deal is reached, Trump has threatened to impose 50% tariffs on $20 billion worth of Canadian products, ranging from hockey sticks to tongue depressors.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Trump have spoken twice by phone in the past two days about the ongoing negotiations, including another call Tuesday afternoon, Carney’s office said, underscoring the last-minute push for a deal.
″We are negotiating,” Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney told reporters Monday, speaking in French. “The negotiations are very intense and delicate. This is not the time to talk about negotiations in public.”
The two countries have wrangled for decades over trade, poking each other over sore spots like Canadian softwood lumber imports and U.S. access to Canada’s protected dairy market.
Somehow they still managed to remain friends, allies and trading partners. Canadian soldiers fought alongside Americans in Afghanistan after 9/11. The 5,525-mile U.S.-Canada border is undefended, and nearly 330,000 people and $2 billion worth of goods cross it every day; 800,000 Canadians live in the United States.
Trump’s approach to dealing with Canada marks an extraordinary departure from the traditionally cooperative relationship between the two countries. Trump has hit Canadian goods with tariffs — in a push to bring manufacturing back to the U.S. — and has repeatedly made inflammatory comments about turning Canada into America’s 51st state.
The Canadian public is fed up. A petition to expel the U.S. ambassador, a Trump ally, has collected nearly 218,000 signatures since July 21. It accuses Ambassador Pete Hoekstra of having “normalized’’ Trump’s talk of annexing Canada, among other complaints.
Nearly 72% of Canada's goods exports last year went to the United States. And the Trump administration might be wary of imposing a hefty new tariff — paid by U.S. importers who try to pass along the cost to consumers via higher prices — ahead of November’s midterm elections. U.S. voters are already frustrated with the high cost of living.
“I don’t think either side really wants these tariffs to come into effect,’’ said Ryan Majerus, a partner at King & Spalding and a former U.S. trade official. “There’s a pretty strong push on both sides to find an off-ramp here.’’
Majerus said the United States is aiming to get Canada to buy more U.S. military equipment, including F-35 fighters; to take part in Trump’s “Golden Dome’’ missile defense; and to give the United States more access to critical minerals, thereby reducing America’s reliance on tenuous supplies from its geopolitical rival, China.
The Canadians would like relief from U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum as well as softwood lumber, which the U.S. says receives unfair government subsidies.
Trump has made tariffs the centerpiece of his second-term economic agenda. Last year, he imposed double-digit import taxes on almost every country, justifying them by declaring the longstanding U.S. trade deficit a national emergency. The Supreme Court in February ruled that he’d overstepped his authority, striking down those tariffs and setting the stage for the federal government to pay refunds to importers.
Trump immediately looked for other ways to rebuild his tariff wall. Last month, he imposed import taxes of 10% to 12.5% on 59 countries and the European Union — which together account for 99% of U.S. imports — for allegedly failing to have or to enforce restrictions on imports made from forced labor.
Then he reached back to the Great Depression to find a cudgel with which to whack Canada.
Trump invoked Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930 to impose 50% tariffs on products that account for about 5% of Canadian exports to the United States.
Nearly a century ago, with the U.S. and world economies in collapse, Congress passed the 1930 tariff law, imposing hefty taxes on imports from around the world. Known as the Smoot-Hawley tariffs, named for their congressional sponsors, they are notorious among economists and historians for limiting world commerce and making the Great Depression worse.
Section 338 tariffs have never been used before. U.S. trade negotiators traditionally have favored another tool, Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 — the provision Trump invoked to impose last month’s forced-labor tariffs.
Section 338 authorizes the president to impose tariffs of up to 50% on imports from countries that have discriminated against U.S. businesses. Unlike Section 301 sanctions, no investigation is required. Nor is there any limit on how long the tariffs can stay in place.
In announcing the Section 338 tariffs, Trump claimed that Canada discriminates against American exports of autos, alcohol and cheese. Trump is angry because Canada and China were the only countries that punched back with retaliatory tariffs of their own when he slapped levies on their products last year.
“If a country retaliates against us, we’re obviously not going to tolerate that,” U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told reporters Friday at the Iowa State Fair. “We’ll take action. My sense is the Canadians, they want to have a more conciliatory approach, but we’ll see.”
The U.S. is renegotiating a North American trade pact — the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement — that Trump strong-armed America’s neighbors into accepting in his first term. The threat of Section 338 tariffs gives the United States leverage to seek fresh concessions from Ottawa.
“From Carney's perspective, you need (USMCA) to be renegotiated," said Christopher Gundermann, a fellow in the economics program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "You can't renegotiate it with a massive trade war going on.''
But the Canadian public’s furor over Trump’s policies may limit Carney’s ability to cut a deal. Canada could retaliate again if the new 50% tariffs take effect, potentially aggravating a trade fight.
Canada’s government “cannot look like it is simply caving to the Trump administration’s demands,’’ said Daniel Béland, a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal.
“Making further concessions without getting something meaningful in exchange would probably lead to a strong backlash ... The risk is for the Carney government to make Canada look weak and, therefore, even more vulnerable to future trade and geopolitical bullying on the part of the Trump administration.”
Dominic LeBlanc, Canada’s minister for U.S. trade, met with Greer on Monday. He was tight-lipped afterward.
“The work is continuing,’’ he said. “We continue to do our job.’’
Gillies reported from Toronto.
Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc makes brief comments to reporters outside the U.S. Department of Commerce following a meeting with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, in Washington, Monday, Aug. 17, 2026. (Kelly Geraldine Malone/The Canadian Press via AP)
United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, center, leaves the U.S. Department of Commerce following a meeting with Canadian officials, in Washington, Monday, Aug. 17, 2026. (Kelly Geraldine Malone/The Canadian Press via AP)
