Senegal
Demographics
Senegal’s current population is estimated at around 17.5 million in January 2023.5 In the past few years, the morbidity and mortality of malaria have decreased significantly in Senegal, and a low rate of HIV prevalence (0.7% in 2014) in the general population has been maintained. Due to the introduction of new vaccines, the protection of children was improved. Since 2004, no new cases of measles-related deaths have been recorded (World Health Organization, 2016). In 2021, the vaccination coverage for the third dose of the DTP-containing vaccine was 85%. For the third dose of Hepatitis B and Haemophilus influenza type B, the vaccination coverage was 86%. BCG had a vaccination coverage rate of 87% in 2021 (World Health Organization, 2022d).
Laws
Guidelines and Regulations
Policies
Pharmaceutical Market
The Department of Pharmacy and Laboratories (DPL) is the regulatory authority that oversees medicine regulation in Senegal. This performs the following regulatory functions: marketing authorization, inspection, licensing, import control, pharmacovigilance, market and quality control, and clinical trials. The previous Ebola outbreaks in Senegal fundamentally contributed to the development of the Senegalese health sector’s ability to respond to emergencies. Currently, the Senegalese national regulator is at WHO ML3. Senegal exports vaccines with pre-qualification from the World Health Organization (WHO); the majority of these countries cannot even export. Senegal has ratified the AMA, and this will help boost regional regulatory initiatives.
From 2009–2015, only 10–15% of pharmaceutical needs in medicines were manufactured locally in Senegal due to the underdeveloped state of the country’s pharmaceutical manufacturing industry. Senegal has around four pharmaceutical manufacturers. It is estimated that the local pharmaceutical market will be worth about 58 billion CFA francs by 2018, which is around 97 million USD. 85%–90% of the drugs needed in the country are imported (Ndao, 2019).
Vaccination Manufacturing Capacity
Despite the fact that only four pharmaceutical manufacturers are located in Senegal, one vaccine manufacturer is located in Senegal, namely Institut Pasteur de Dakar (Saied et al., 2022). The Institut Pasteur de Dakar has 80 years of experience in the production and distribution of vaccines. Since 1930, it has produced a vaccine against yellow fever, and it plays a crucial role in the availability of this vaccine worldwide (Institut Posteur de Dakar, no date). More recently, Institut Pasteur de Dakar was included as a recipient in the WHO mRNA technology transfer hub program (World Health Organization, no date; Rubin Thompson et al., 2023).