An 18-year-old Senegalese, Mamadou Tahirou, looks much younger than his age, his frail body bearing the effects of years of living with sickle cell disease.
The inherited blood disorder frequently leaves him battling severe bone pain, anaemia, extreme fatigue and debilitating headaches, often sending him to hospital and placing a heavy financial and emotional burden on his family.
“It hurts a lot, and you suffer so much. And when you don’t have enough resources to protect yourself from the illness, you suffer even more. My parents are exhausted, I know that,” Tahirou said.
His condition has also disrupted his education, with painful crises sometimes occurring while he is in class and forcing him to miss school.
His mother, Rabiatou Diallo, said her son spends much of his time in hospital and is currently unable to walk because of severe pain in his feet.
“He has pain in his feet, and at the moment he cannot walk. It is very difficult. The medication and hospital costs are very expensive,” she said.
Africa accounts for nearly 80 per cent of the global burden of sickle cell disease, yet many patients across the continent depend on costly medicines imported from Europe and the Americas.
Among the most widely recommended treatments is hydroxyurea, which the World Health Organization says can help reduce painful crises, hospitalisations, blood transfusions and premature deaths among people living with the disease.
Now, a Senegalese pharmaceutical company, Teranga Pharma, has produced what it describes as Africa’s first locally manufactured treatment for sickle cell disease, raising hopes of improving access to the medicine across the continent.
The company’s chief executive, Mouhamadou Sow, said Teranga Pharma has developed Drepaf, a generic version of hydroxyurea, widely regarded as a key treatment for sickle cell disease.
“Africans do not have access to the active ingredient. So the first key point is that Teranga Pharma has enabled Senegalese and Africans to gain access to this molecule,” Sow said.
He said that before Drepaf was developed, patients who could not afford or obtain imported medication had few local treatment options.
“Doctors often had to treat the consequences of the disease rather than addressing its root cause, the red blood cells,” he said.
Drepaf was launched in November 2025 and is available in 500mg doses for adults and 100mg doses for children. The company says its objective is to help reduce the frequency of sickle cell crises significantly.
The locally produced medicine could help tackle persistent shortages while reducing patients’ dependence on expensive imported drugs.
Sow said Teranga Pharma’s broader mission is to help shape the pharmaceutical future of sub-Saharan Africa by ensuring that medicines used by Africans are increasingly manufactured on the continent.
“Our approach is based not only on financial considerations but also on public health. Because if Africa is to develop, if Africa is to enjoy good health, the medicines that Africans take must be produced in Africa,” he said.
The initiative has attracted interest from other African countries. Backed by $7.1 million in funding, Teranga Pharma is working with an Indian technical partner to expand production and distribution.
The company said it is already working with Burkina Faso, Guinea and Ivory Coast, while requests have also been received from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon and Cameroon.
Teranga Pharma plans to expand its reach across sub-Saharan Africa by 2030 as it seeks to contribute to greater pharmaceutical independence on the continent.
For patients such as Tahirou and their families, the development offers renewed hope that life-saving sickle cell treatment can become more accessible and affordable closer to home.
