Expanding the local vaccine and pharmaceutical industry in Senegal

Context

The COVID-19 crisis highlighted the fact that Africa is too dependent on imports for access to vaccines and other medicines. Senegal currently imports more than 90 per cent of its medicines and 99 per cent of its vaccines.

The country therefore aims to locally produce one third of the pharmaceuticals required by the domestic market by 2030, increasing to 50 per cent by 2035. However, the institutional structures of public and private sector actors are not sufficiently robust to support the expansion of vaccine and pharmaceutical production in Senegal.

Through the Institut Pasteur de Dakar (IPD), the country already is home to a functioning vaccine production for yellow fever. Thus, the country has one of the few organisations in sub-Saharan Africa with many years of experience in vaccine production. However, the pharmaceutical industry in Senegal only counts half a dozen locally based producers and is currently not competitive.

Objective

The institutional structures of public and private sector actors have been strengthened to enable the expansion of vaccine and pharmaceutical production in Senegal.

Approach

The project supports the Senegalese Government and the private sector to enable the future production of more vaccines and other pharmaceutical products in Senegal for the local and regional market. To this end, the project is focusing on the following activities:

• Coordination: It is supporting the Ministry of Health and Social Action in implementing reforms and establishing the frameworks required to revive the vaccine and pharmaceutical industries.
• Regulation: It is assisting the national authority that oversees medicine regulation in achieving WHO maturity level 3 status, which confirms that a stable, well-functioning and integrated regulatory system is in place.
• Production: It is building expertise in the local pharmaceutical industry through knowledge and technology transfer. This is supported by partnerships with European actors, such as pharmaceutical companies and training institutes.

Last update: July 2023