Morocco pharmas aim for Gulf Market

Morocco's generic medicines producers aim to set up base in the UAE to enter Gulf and Central Asian countries.

Ravindranath K / The National

Morocco's pharmaceutical companies are looking to tap the Arabian Gulf market with their generic medicines as they look to offset weak growth at home.
"[Morocco's] near-term outlook for non-agricultural economic activity remains weak, with subdued prospects for private consumption in particular," according to a Business Monitor International (BMI) report. "We have revised down our 2014 real GDP growth forecast to 2.8 per cent, from 3 per cent previously, with such negative headwinds also having a bearing on the country's pharmaceutical and wider healthcare spending trends."
According to the research group, the Moroccan pharma market's constraints include low per capita consumption and an underdeveloped reimbursement system. In the near term, BMI analysts expect the contraction in pharmaceutical spending in Morocco to continue as the government seeks to reduce the country's large fiscal deficit and weak domestic demand. Access to finance is also difficult for the local drugmakers.
The total expenditure on pharma contracted 2 per cent last year to US$1.11 billion.
Of Morocco's 30 pharma manufacturers that mostly produce generics, only two have a presence in the UAE.
"The rest are keen to get in," said Hamid Kabbage, the export adviser for Maroc Export, the North African nation's export promotion arm.
Six manufacturers from Morocco were present for the first time at this year's Arab Health exhibition.
Among them was Pharma5, which expects to enter the UAE with five medicines, mostly antibiotics, within the next eight months.
It is already present in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Oman, and wants to enter other markets from the UAE.
Morocco exports more than 30 per cent of its overall generics production, said Mr Kabbage.
Bottu Laboratorie, based in Casablanca, is also looking to expand to Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Africa and other Gulf countries from the UAE.
It plans to enter the market with 10 products, including antibiotics, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal and diabetes medications, by the year end, said Ahmed Kathir, the export director at Bottu.
Its top markets include Francophone countries such as Ivory Coast and Senegal in Africa as well as the Gulf, with most exports going to Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Kuwait. The European Union accounts for 10 per cent of its exports.
The overall market value of Morocco's pharma sector was expected at $1.88bn last year, according to data from Maghreb Health Summit and Expo.
Global companies such as GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, Ranbaxy and Sanofi have a strong presence in Morocco as there is a strong preference for brand-name drugs over generics.
Last year, Jordan's Hikma increased its stake in the local Promopharm to 94.1 per cent, while in September, the UAE-based Abraaj Group invested in Steripharma.
Independent local manufacturers primarily operate under licence or produce generics, said a report from the research company Espicom Healthcare Intelligence in 2012. Among the local producers are Cooper Pharma, Laprophan and Sothéma.
Generics had a 30 per cent market share with the rest accounted for by brand name drugs in 2012, according to a report from Euromonitor.
[e-mail]