Senegal has launched a lower-cost hydroxyurea treatment for sickle cell disease, potentially widening access to an important medicine in a region carrying most of the world’s burden of the inherited blood disorder.
Drep. Afrique says DREPAF is produced locally in partnership with Senegalese pharmaceutical company Teranga Pharma and was officially launched in November 2025. But claims circulating online describing it as Africa’s first locally manufactured hydroxyurea treatment are contradicted by WHO and Nigerian regulatory records.
Treatment produced locally
Drep.Afrique, which developed the DREPAF initiative, says it entered a humanitarian agreement with Teranga Pharma to produce and package the generic medicine locally and make it available at cost.
The treatment is offered in 100mg and 500mg formulations, allowing greater flexibility in dosing, particularly for younger patients. Drep.Afrique says DREPAF received marketing authorisation in Senegal in 2025.
The organisation says a 500mg capsule costs about 98 CFA francs, compared with 203 CFA francs for a previously available alternative, while treatment for a five-year-old can cost around 1,500 CFA francs a month.
The development strengthens Senegal’s broader effort to strengthen domestic health capacity and reduce dependence on imported medical products.
Africa carries heavy burden
The public-health stakes are considerable.
WHO estimates that sub-Saharan Africa accounts for nearly 80 percent of global sickle cell disease cases. Hydroxyurea can reduce painful crises, hospital admissions and the need for blood transfusions among appropriate patients.
WHO’s 2026 guidance recommends hydroxyurea for children and adolescents with sickle cell anaemia from nine months of age, while stressing appropriate dosing and medical monitoring.
Affordable local supply could therefore help tackle two persistent barriers to treatment: price and availability.
The initiative also reflects the industrial opportunity examined in Africa Briefing’s analysis of why Africa needs to expand pharmaceutical manufacturing rather than remain heavily reliant on imports.
Africa-first claim challenged
The broader assertion that DREPAF is Africa’s first locally manufactured hydroxyurea treatment does not withstand scrutiny.
Drep.Afrique describes DREPAF as Senegal’s first locally produced generic hydroxyurea treatment. What can be established independently, however, is that hydroxyurea products were manufactured elsewhere in Africa years before the Senegal launch.
WHO said in June 2024 that hydroxyurea was already being manufactured in Nigeria by Bond Chemical Industries.
Nigeria’s NAFDAC regulatory database provides further evidence. Bond Chemical Industries received approval for locally manufactured Oxyurea 100mg and 250mg capsules in July 2018, while its 500mg formulation was approved in August 2021.
The historical record means DREPAF should not be promoted as Africa’s first locally manufactured hydroxyurea medicine.
Local production still matters
That correction does not diminish the significance of the Senegal initiative.
Making an established treatment more affordable and producing the finished medicine closer to patients could strengthen supply security while supporting Senegal’s pharmaceutical sector.
It also comes as African governments and development institutions push for greater health sovereignty. Africa Briefing has reported on the African Development Bank’s $6bn health and pharmaceutical investment drive, aimed partly at expanding manufacturing capacity across the continent.
For Senegal, DREPAF’s importance rests not on an inaccurate continental ‘first’, but on a more consequential achievement: making sickle cell treatment cheaper and potentially more accessible to patients who need it.
Credit: Africa Briefing
