This day will always be remembered in Morocco. The Kingdom is about to get manufacturing capacities for the Covid-19 vaccine. To this end, agreements were signed with the Chinese pharmaceutical group, Sinopharm, the Swedish company Recipharm and the Moroccan company of Therapeutics Sothema to produce the anti-Covid-19 vaccine owned by the Sinopharm Company.
King Mohammed VI presided, on Monday in Fez, over the launching ceremony and signing of agreements relating to the project of manufacturing and syringing in Morocco of the anti-Covid19 vaccine and other vaccines, the Royal Cabinet said in a press release.
This are a memorandum pertaining to cooperation for the production of the anti-Covid19 vaccine between the Moroccan State and the National Pharmaceutical Group of China (Sinopharm), another memorandum of understanding concerning the establishment of vaccine manufacturing capacities in Morocco between the Moroccan State and the company Recipharm, as well as a contract for the provision to the Moroccan State of the aseptic filling facilities of the Societe de Therapeutique Marocaine (Sothema) for the production of the anti-Covid-19 vaccine owned by Sinopharm.
This structuring project is part of the monarch’s desire to provide the Kingdom with complete and integrated industrial and biotechnological capacities, dedicated to the fabrication of vaccines in Morocco, the same source stresses.
It aims to produce in Morocco the anti-Covid vaccine, as well as other key vaccines, so as to promote the Kingdom’s self-sufficiency and to make Morocco a leading biotechnology platform on the African continent and the world in the field of the “fill & finish” industry.
The project, which is the result of a public-private partnership, aims to start in the short term with a production capacity of five million doses of anti-Covid19 vaccine per month, before gradually increasing this capacity in the medium term. It will mobilize an overall investment of around $500 million.
With the launch of this large-scale partnership, which follows on from the telephone conversation of 31 August 2020 between the Moroccan King and Chinese President Xi Jinping, Morocco is taking a further step in the realization of the royal vision for effective and proactive management of the pandemic crisis and its aftermath.
While strengthening the Kingdom’s health sovereignty, the project presented to the King consecrates Morocco’s international influence and reinforces its vocation as a provider of health security within its regional and continental environment, in the face of health risks, external dependencies and political contingencies.
At the beginning of this ceremony, and after an introductory word from the Minister of Health, Samir Machour, an international expert in industrial biotechnology and currently vice-president of Samsung Biologics, presented the project for the syringing and manufacturing in Morocco of the anti-Covid and other vaccines.
Subsequently, the CEO of the Sinopharm Group, Liu Jingzhen, made a presentation from China. The Chairman and CEO of Recipharm, Marc Funk, also presented the project to establish vaccine manufacturing capacities in Morocco.
HA/fss/abj/APA