Senegal-made sickle cell treatment raises hopes, reduces costs

DAKAR, Senegal (AFP) -- Mamadou Tahirou is 18 but looks more like a 12-year-old, his frame frail from the ravages of sickle cell disease, which one Senegalese laboratory is hoping to attenuate with affordable drug production. The lab is one of the few in Africa producing generic hydroxyurea, the gold standard in sickle cell treatment, and the first ever in Senegal. Speaking to AFP from his family home near Dakar, Tahirou, eyes bulging and features marked by fatigue, described a life dictated by the hereditary disease, which affects nearly eight million people worldwide.

Bone pain, severe anaemia, extreme fatigue and intense headaches: these symptoms frequently land him in the hospital, Tahirou said, while his 40-year-old mother, Rabiatou, watched helplessly nearby, her eyes swelling with tears. Fits of pain sometimes flare up while he is in class, disrupting his education and forcing him to miss school regularly. Africa accounts for nearly 80 percent of all sickle cell disease cases.

Senegalese pharmacist and Teranga Pharma CEO Dr Mouhamadou Sow displays a box of DREPAF, a generic formulation used to treat sickle cell disease, during an interview at his office in Mbao, on July 27, 2026. (Photo: AFP) Yet the continent remains largely dependent on expensive medicines imported from Europe and the Americas, especially hydroxyurea, the treatment recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). The medication helps reduce painful crises, hospitalisations, the need for blood transfusions and death, according to the organisation.

- Interest across west Africa - "I was three years old when I was diagnosed with sickle cell disease. I've been living with it ever since", Tahirou told AFP, slumped in the family living room. Senegalese pharmaceutical firm Teranga Pharma is producing a local treatment it touts as more affordable and better suited to patients' realities.

In November 2025, the company launched Drepaf, available in 500 milligram doses for adults and 100 milligram doses for children, with the goal of "reducing the crisis threefold". The generic drug offers hope for addressing the shortage of treatments and reducing reliance on more costly imported medication. And it is already garnering interest from several countries across the continent.

The initiative is backed by 4 billion CFA ($7.1 million) in funding and comes at a time when access to imported treatm…