During the 8th edition of the International Day of Medical Biotechnology, held under the theme « What post-Covid-19 strategy: towards the development of a human vaccine in Morocco? », The participants discussed a development initiative and vaccine manufacturing in Morocco, which will allow the national market to have these products in the best conditions (cost and time) and to establish the Kingdom as a biotechnological pole at regional and continental levels. Intervening in the debate, the director of the biotechnology laboratory of the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy of Rabat, Azeddine Ibrahimi, noted the need to develop an anti-Covid-19 vaccine at the level of national laboratories.
« Despite the expensive cost that this implies, the Kingdom is able to develop such a drug, » he said. According to Ibrahimi, partnership and cooperation between scientists, researchers and pharmaceutical companies remains important to realize this national ambition.
For her part, the director of the National Center for Scientific and Technical Research (CNRST), Jamila El Alami, indicated that Morocco has « significant » experience in creating animal vaccines that it exports to countries. of the African continent. « Clinical trials on humans are more drastic and require several phases of testing that can last for several years, » she added. The CNRST official also recalled that the infrastructure for the production of the human vaccine is « expensive » from clean culture rooms through clinical trials to industrial production. In this sense, she underlined the need to establish a public-private partnership between scientists, doctors, pharmaceutical industries and investors. Two flagship programs were launched jointly with the supervisory department.
This is the program to support scientific and technological research in connection with the Covid-19, with a budget of 20 million DH and the program to support scientific research in human, social and economic sciences in link with current affairs (10 million DH).