Senegal launches locally made sickle cell drug

At his family home near Dakar, 18-year-old Mamadou Tahirou describes a life measured in pain crises, hospital stays and missed classes. His sickle cell disease has left him frail, and now a factory in Mbao is making a drug that Senegalese pharmaceutical company Teranga Pharma says can make treatment more affordable: Drepaf, a locally produced generic hydroxyurea.

Hydroxyurea is the treatment recommended by the World Health Organization and is used to reduce painful crises, hospitalizations, blood transfusions and deaths. Yet Africa, home to nearly 80% of sickle cell disease cases, still depends heavily on medicines imported from Europe and the Americas. A 2023 study published in Blood reported that 78% of surveyed health care professionals across 13 French-speaking sub-Saharan African countries saw frequent disruptions in hydroxyurea supplies.

Teranga Pharma launched Drepaf in November 2025, in 500-milligram doses for adults and 100-milligram doses for children. The company says the pediatric version is suitable from 9 months of age and aims to reduce crises threefold. At wholesale level, the two versions sell for 3,000 CFA and 1,500 CFA, while Hydrea and Siklos, imported hydroxyurea medicines already on the market, can cost up to three times as much.

The practical consequence for families in Senegal is that a local option is now available when imported medicine is unavailable or unaffordable. Magueye Ndiaye of the Senegalese Association for the Fight Against Sickle Cell Disease says one box of Drepaf contains 60 tablets, compared with two boxes of 20 tablets previously needed for the same price. Lala Dieng, whose 17-year-old son switched from Hydrea 500 to Drepaf 100, told AFP that she had noticed far fewer attacks since the switch.

Production is being ramped up, with a target to meet demand across sub-Saharan Africa by 2030. The initiative is backed by 4 billion CFA ($7.1 million), and Teranga Pharma is working with an Indian technical partner and says it is cooperating with Burkina Faso, Guinea and Ivory Coast, while receiving requests from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon and Cameroon. Its target is to meet demand across sub-Saharan Africa by 2030. The AFP account does not cite clinical trial results supporting the company’s efficacy claim.