Sickle Cell Gene Therapies Approved as Senegal Makes Local Generic Drug

The FDA approved the gene therapies Casgevy and Lyfgenia for sickle cell disease in December 2023. Senegal's Teranga Pharma launched Drepaf, a local generic hydroxyurea, in November 2025 in 500mg adult and 100mg child doses, with 4 billion CFA ($7.1 million) in backing. Sickle cell affects nearly eight million people worldwide; Africa has nearly 80 percent of cases. Drepaf wholesale prices are 3,000 CFA and 1,500 CFA; Hydrea and Siklos cost up to three times as much. A 2023 Blood study found 78 percent of health workers in 13 French-speaking sub-Saharan countries reported frequent hydroxyurea shortages. Mamadou Tahirou, 18, told AFP at his home near Dakar he was diagnosed at three and has lived with the disease ever since, his mother Rabiatou watching nearby. Factory CEO Mouhamadou Sow said doctors often treated disease consequences rather than the red-blood-cell cause. Magueye Ndiaye said one box of 60 Drepaf tablets now costs the same as two boxes of 20 before. Lala Dieng reported far fewer attacks after her son switched to Drepaf 100. Teranga works with an Indian partner and Burkina Faso, Guinea and Ivory Coast, has requests from DRC, Gabon and Cameroon, and aims to supply sub-Saharan Africa by 2030. Contested: No contested claims found. How broadly Drepaf reaches patients, and access to gene therapy, remain unresolved.