The Pasteur Institute of Morocco is set to establish an industrial unit for the manufacturing of vaccines and other biomedical products. The factory will be located in Tit Mellil, near Casablanca.
The Pasteur Institute’s Board of Directors approved the project on Wednesday, December 30, during its annual meeting. Minister of Health Khalid Ait Taleb chaired the session.
The establishment of the industrial unit seeks to increase Morocco’s ability to meet the national demand for vaccines. The unit will manufacture vaccines against infectious diseases, as well as antidotes against snakebites and scorpion stings.
The future facility intends to strengthen Morocco’s position among countries producing biomedical products in accordance with the World Health Organization’s (WHO) standards, said the Pasteur Institute of Morocco in a press release.
The project falls within the framework of the institute’s 2019-2023 strategic plan, which seeks to increase the array of services provided by the facility.
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During Wednesday’s meeting, the board of directors also approved the creation of a national expertise center specialized in biomedical analyses.
The center will help Morocco better face diseases and epidemics, reducing the country’s dependence on foreign laboratories or resources.
Located in Casablanca, the Pasteur Institute of Morocco is one of the country’s leading research centers dedicated to biology, micro-organisms, diseases, and vaccines. It is co-funded by the French Pasteur Institute foundation and the Moroccan Ministry of Health.
At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in Morocco, the institute was one of only two facilities that received immediate authorization to conduct COVID-19 tests, thanks to the many international certifications it had obtained throughout the years.
The recently-approved projects would further strengthen the role of the Pasteur Institute of Morocco and improve the country’s resilience to epidemics.
The planned industrial unit in Tit Mellil is very likely to produce COVID-19 vaccines. Morocco is one of the countries that signed an agreement with Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinopharm to locally produce COVID-19 vaccines.
