Institut Pasteur de Dakar

Established in 1896 in St Louis of Senegal as a laboratory and later transferred to Dakar, the Institut Pasteur de Dakar was created in 1924.

The Institut Pasteur in Dakar, where the yellow fever virus was discovered in 1927 « French Neurotropic Virus » invested very earlier in research and development which lead to the development of the yellow fever vaccine.

Manufacturing yellow fever vaccine since 1937, Institut Pasteur de Dakar is one of the 4 WHO prequalified manufacturers to supply the UN Nations and the only one located in Africa.

Apart from Pasteur’s mission (Public Health, Education, Training and Research), Institut Pasteur de Dakar ambitions to play a key role in vaccine manufacturing in Africa through skills development, and to contribute to reducing vaccine-preventable diseases.

To increase its production capacity, Institut Pasteur de Dakar is building a new facility (AfricAmaril project) in Diamniadio (new city 40 km far from Dakar).

With regards to the Covid-19 pandemic, Institut Pasteur de Dakar has been committed by the Government of Senegal to implement a multimodal platform to contribute to vaccine production in Africa (MADIBA project)

Apart from vaccine production activities, Institut Pasteur de Dakar develops a platform for Rapid test diagnostic (RTD) for epidemics diseases.

In 2010, the Institut Pasteur de Dakar became a Senegalese non-profit foundation of public utility Owned by the Government of Senegal and Pasteur Institute in Paris.