In countries across sub-Saharan Africa, children are dying from an entirely treatable disease—if they can access care. Sickle cell disease affects millions worldwide, yet up to 90 percent of children born with the condition in low-resource settings don’t live to see their fifth birthday.[1]
This is about to change. CHAI has secured two groundbreaking agreements that could fundamentally reshape access to care for sickle cell disease:
- Silver Lake Research will make available rapid diagnostic tests for just US$1 per test—the lowest price available for any sickle cell diagnostic, with the company ready to fulfill orders immediately.
- Qilu Pharmaceutical will provide FDA-approved hydroxyurea treatment at significantly reduced prices for low- and middle-income countries. These dramatic cost reductions address the full care continuum and could spark a global transformation in how we approach this neglected disease.
Transforming diagnosis and treatment
The breakthrough isn’t just in pricing—it’s in enabling a fundamental shift toward decentralized care. Conventional sickle cell testing costs over US$8 per test plus transportation and lab costs, often with significant patient loss to follow-up. Silver Lake Research’s US$1 point-of-care test represents the lowest price available for any sickle cell diagnostics. This pricing is the same regardless of order volume, making it accessible to healthcare systems of all sizes.
“Low-cost rapid tests for SCD are a complete game-changer for testing accessibility,” explains Dr. David Ripin, CHAI’s Executive Vice President for Infectious Diseases and Chief Scientific Officer. “The availability of quality, low-cost diagnostics will dramatically expand testing coverage, reaching more people in need at a time when dollars for public health are stretched so thin.”
“At Silver Lake Research, we are committed to turning biotech innovation into real‐world diagnostics that benefit communities around the world. We not only aim to improve early detection, but also to empower local care systems—transforming groundbreaking research into real‐world impact,” said Alexander Gruzdev, Vice President at Silver Lake Research.
The scale of need is staggering: sickle cell disease kills over 350,000[2] people every year, most of them children under the age of five. For example, about four percent[3] of all children born in Sub- Saharan Africa are born with SCD. This means that healthcare systems must run many screening tests to identify each patient. The US$1 test price becomes game-changing in enabling widespread, point-of-care screening that can identify infants before they experience the debilitating pain and emergency care that define untreated sickle cell disease.
Hydroxyurea, the life-saving drug that reduces painful crises and helps patients live longer, has been priced out of reach for most of the world’s population despite being available in wealthy countries for decades. Qilu Pharmaceutical’s dramatically reduced pricing means approximately 12,000 people could access this FDA-approved treatment in the first year, with plans to expand until everyone with sickle cell disease can access quality-assured medication.
Strategic investment drives change
These breakthroughs stem from a US$8 million investment from Open Philanthropy—the first major donor commitment specifically focused on making sickle cell disease care affordable. The funding has allowed CHAI to quickly work across the entire care chain to find solutions.
“For too long, children with sickle cell disease have died simply because treatment was unaffordable,” says Dr. Neil Buddy Shah, CHAI’s CEO. “These agreements mean that families can finally afford to get their children tested and treated without choosing between healthcare and putting food on the table.”
The path forward
These agreements represent more than cost reductions—they demonstrate a model for how strategic partnerships can overcome market failures in global health. By de-risking investments for pharmaceutical companies and diagnostic manufacturers, initiatives like this create sustainable pathways to access that don’t depend on ongoing charity.
The next phase will be equally critical: securing distribution agreements in high-burden countries and building the healthcare infrastructure needed to deliver on the promise of affordable care. CHAI’s commitment to work across the full continuum of care recognizes that breakthrough pricing only matters if it translates into medicine in patients’ hands.
For the millions of families affected by sickle cell disease, these announcements offer something that’s been in short supply: hope backed by concrete action.
The US$1 test and dramatically reduced treatment costs won’t solve every challenge overnight, but they remove the financial barriers that have kept life-saving care out of reach for far too long.
In global health, transformation often comes not from revolutionary breakthroughs but from making existing solutions accessible to those who need them most. These agreements do exactly that—taking proven interventions and pricing them for the world’s most vulnerable populations. That’s the kind of innovation that saves lives.
[1] https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1001484
[2] https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1001484
[3] https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article-abstract/147/3_MeetingAbstract/239/5116/Extremely-High-Birth-Prevalence-of-Sickle-Cell?redirectedFrom=fulltext
