After Senegal, Algeria, Egypt and Nigeria, which aim to locally produce vaccines against the coronavirus, it is around Morocco to join in the dance. The Shereefian kingdom has just obtained the approval of China to locally produce the Sinopharme vaccines.
In this sense, a memorandum of cooperation between the kingdom and the Chinese pharmaceutical group Sinopharm was signed Monday (July 5th) during a ceremony chaired by King Mohammed VI, according to the Moroccan press agency (MAP).
For a global investment of 421 million euros, Morocco will have to produce 5 million doses of vaccines per month. The production start date has not been specified but it will take place shortly, MAP said.
To deal with the coronavirus pandemic, many African countries supported by donors want to obtain patents and produce vaccines locally. With this in mind, the African Union (AU) has launched the “African Vaccine Manufacturing Partnership” (VAMP) initiative with the objective of creating five vaccine research and manufacturing hubs on the continent.
This project will be supported by several donors including the pan-African bank Afreximbank and the Africa Finance Corporation, a pan-African financial institution. Within 10 to 15 years, these 5 vaccine research and manufacturing poles will be developed in each of the five major regions of the continent (North Africa, West Africa, Central Africa, Southern Africa, East Africa)
As a reminder, the World Health Organization (WHO) Africa lamented last April that of the 690 million doses of anti-Covid-19 vaccine administered globally, only 2% were sent to the continent.