The Institut Pasteur de Dakar (IPD) is a biomedical research center in Dakar, Senegal. The institute is part of the world-wide Pasteur Institute, which co-manages the IPD with the Senegalese government.

Description

In 1896 Émile Marchoux, a French physician and microbiologist who had studied under Louis Pasteur, founded a microbiological laboratory in Saint-Louis, then the capital of French Colonial Senegal. In 1913 the facility was moved to Dakar which had become the new capital in 1902.^[1][2] After French Colonial Senegal, the institute continued its operations into the era of Senegalese independence. The IPD is primarily focused on the study of microbiology and virology, specifically arbovirus; yellow fever was first isolated in Africa at the institute, and the first vaccine for the disease was discovered at the IPD.^[3]

Following the outbreak and spread of COVID-19, the institute began to work on developing a cost-effective means of testing for coronavirus.^[4][5] Furthermore, in July 2021 an agreement was reached between Senegal, the European Commission, European Investment Bank, France, Germany and Belgium to build a large-scale manufacturing facility at the Pasteur Institute for the production of vaccines against COVID-19 and other endemic diseases.^[6]