Morocco to build Covid-19 vaccine plant to meet 60 per cent of Africa's needs

Facility will help 'position the kingdom as a key biotechnology hub in Africa and the world'

A health worker receives the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine at the Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi. Reuters

A woman receives an Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine at the Ridge Hospital in Accra, Ghana. AFP

Kenya's Cabinet Secretary for Health Mutahi Kagwe receives the first batch of AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccines at the Jomo Kenyatta international airport in Nairobi. Reuters

Workers offload boxes with Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines as Nigeria receives its first batch of Covid-19 vaccines under Covax scheme, at the international airport of Abuja. Reuters

People wait in line to receive an injection of the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine at Mulago referral hospital in Kampala, Uganda. AFP

Nigerian Health Minister Osagie Ehanire briefs diplomats on the country's measures to tackle the coronavirus in Abuja. Reuters

An Ugandan doctor receives the first injection of the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine at Mulago referral hospital in Kampala. AFP

Cargo containing a batch of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine against Covid-19 is seen at an airport in Khartoum, Sudan. Reuters

Traditional leaders wait their turn to receive Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines at the Ridge Hospital in Accra. AFP

Healthcare worker prepares a dose of the Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine at the National hospital in Abuja, Nigeria, March 5, 2021. REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde

An employee unloads boxes of Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines after their delivery as a part of the UN-led COVAX initiative at Entebbe international airport in Uganda. AFP

Dr Ngong Cyprian receives his first dose of the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine from Dr Faisal Shuaib, Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, at the National hospital in Abuja. Reuters

Nigeria's first batch of Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines arrives at the international airport of Abuja. Reuters

Kenyan workers receive the first batch of AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccines under the COVAX scheme at the Jomo Kenyatta international airport in Nairobi, Kenya. Reuters

A man receives a dose of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine at the Jabra Hospital for Emergency and Injuries in Sudan's capital Khartoum. AFP

A medical worker receives a dose of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine at the Jabra Hospital for Emergency and Injuries in Sudan's capital Khartoum. AFP

Elderly people wait to receive the first injection of Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine at Muyumbu Health Center in Rwamagana, East Kigali, Rwanda. AFP

Workers offload Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines under the COVAX scheme at the Aden Abdulle Osman Airport in Mogadishu, Somalia. Reuters

Health workers stand inside a Covid-19 vaccine center during the firstOxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine administration at the palais des sports in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. AFP

An Ethiopian Airlines staff unloads the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines under the COVAX scheme at the Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Reuters

Workers start to un-wrap boxes containing Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines donated to Senegal by the COVAX global Covid-19 vaccination program are seen as they are unloaded in Dakar. AFP

Doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine are unloaded from a plane upon arrival at the airport in Bamako, Mali. AFP

A health professional administers a Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine to a nurse at the Central Vaccine depot in Luanda, Angola. AFP

Morocco's King Mohammed VI attended the launch of a Covid-19 vaccine plant on Thursday.

The facility in Ben Slimane, which is expected to attract 200 million euros ($223 million) in investment but may eventually draw 500 million euros, will focus on pharmaceutical research efforts, clinical development, and the manufacturing and marketing of biopharmaceutical products.

It is slated to become Africa's largest “fill and finish” platform – where the drug is transferred to a sterile container – and one of the biggest in the world.

“This industrial unit is in line with the vision of His Majesty the king to position the kingdom as a key biotechnology hub in Africa and the world, capable of meeting the health needs of the continent in the short and long term,” the state news agency Map said.

Within the first three years, three types of Covid-19 vaccines made in the plant will cover 70 per cent of the kingdom’s needs, and more than 60 per cent of Africa’s demands.

Africa remains largely under-innoculated compared to other nations.

“Just 3 per cent of the almost 8 billion doses given globally have been administered in Africa and only 8 per cent of Africans are fully vaccinated compared with more than 60 per cent in many high-income countries,” the World Health Organisation said in December.

The plant will also manufacture non-Covid-19 vaccines and will have three industrial lines with a capacity of producing 116 million units by 2024, Map said.

”The projected investment is approximately 200 million Euros, and the start of production of the trial batches is scheduled for July 30, 2022.”

The Sensyo Pharmatech plant will help raise the country’s capacity for manufacturing the Chinese Covid-19 Sinopharm vaccine from three million doses per month to five million doses per month by February this year, Map said.

That number is set to increase “to more than 20 million doses per month by the end of 2022“.

”By 2025, Morocco will be able to produce more than 2 billion doses of vaccine,” Map said.

Also on Thursday, Morocco reopened its airspace to and from the the country.

So far, more than 24.6 million people have received their first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, with the number of those fully vaccinated at more than 23 million.

Despite this, the number of daily cases in the country has started to increase for a third time since the start of the year.