Rabat – The Moroccan Foundation for Advanced Science, Innovation, and Research (MAScIR), a research and development institution based in Rabat, has created the first 100% Moroccan-designed COVID-19 diagnostic kit and secured its international verification.
Morocco’s Royal Armed Forces (FAR), the Royal Gendarmerie, and the Pasteur Institute in Paris have tested and validated the kit.
MAScIR has 10 years of experience in the development of molecular diagnostic kits and launched an operation to develop an RT-PCR diagnostic test for the novel coronavirus pathogen at the beginning of the pandemic, a press release from the foundation said on May 31.
Once MAScIR developed the diagnostic kit in its laboratories, the institution submitted the kit to a series of validation processes at both national and international biological and virological centers to determine its effectiveness and reliability, MAScIR explained.
The foundation thanked the public authorities, particularly the ministries of the interior, economy, and health, for their support for the project, as well as FAR, the Royal Gendarmerie, the National Institute of Hygiene, the managers and scientists of the national laboratories, and the Directorate of Medicines and Pharmacy (DMP).
MAScIR also expressed its gratitude to the Casablanca University Hospital, whose researchers actively participated in the development of the Moroccan-made COVID-19 diagnostic kits. The university also opened its laboratories in Rabat, Casablanca, Marrakech, and Meknes to the project.
At the end of the verification tests, the Moroccan COVID-19 test kit obtained validation from approved national and foreign laboratories, including FAR, the Royal Gendarmerie, and the Pasteur Institute of Paris. The recognition places the 100% Moroccan design at the same level of COVID-19 testing kits used internationally, said the MAScIR.
MAScIR was established in 2007 with the aim of promoting research and development centers in Morocco that meet, in particular, the country’s medical and biological needs.
Over its 12 years of operation, MAScIR has filed 180 patents with extensions at the African regional level, produced 650 scientific articles in internationally-acclaimed journals, and conducted more than 100 projects with national and foreign industrialists.
Read also: Moroccan Foundation Introduces 100% Moroccan-Made AI Respirator
