Moroccans Continue to Decry High Medicine Prices as Pharmacists Announce Strike

Rabat – As pharmacists prepare to go on national strikes in protest of what they see as a lack of cooperation from Morocco’s government, the country’s citizens are still decrying the high prices of medicines.

Moroccan social media users have lambasted the prices in Morocco that have been much higher than in other countries.

“In Egypt I was forced to buy a medicine I constantly consume, in Morocco I bought it for 68 dirhams, in Egypt’s pharmacies it was sold for 20 dirhams,” one Facebook user said.

People also pointed out that prices sometimes exceed those in European countries, despite base pay in those countries being higher than in Morocco.

Others added that the high prices harm the country’s low-income earners and those with chronic illnesses the most, calling on the government to intervene and bring down prices to affordable levels.

A report from Morocco’s Court of Audits recently claimed that profit margins on medicines in Morocco reach as high as 57%, making it the highest by far in a list of countries including Turkiye, Denmark, France, and Portugal.

Despite pushback from pharmacists, citizens are still raising concerns about high prices, especially as other essentials such as food are also getting more expensive. The protests have led Morocco’s government to intervene and limit prices, in an effort to make them affordable for the average citizen.

In response, pharmacists across the country have threatened strikes starting from April 13, that would see pharmacies shut down for up to two days if their demands are not met.

In a statement signed by four different worker groups, pharmacists said the Court of Audits report was not accurate, and criticized the government for interfering in the industry with the price reduction plan without consulting pharmacists first.

The report also says that a quarter of medicines on the Moroccan market are monopolized by a single pharmaceutical provider, making it easier to hike prices. It notes that the measures past governments attempted to implement have still failed to produce an effect.

Moroccans’ complaints about prohibitively expensive medicines come as many across the country continue to take issue with the government over a deepening cost of living crisis.

Since the weeks leading up to the month of Ramadan, and even as far back as 2022, Moroccans have been decrying rapid increases in the prices of essential food items such as vegetables and red meat.

Despite government reassurances that measures are being implemented to bring down the prices, nothing of consequence appears to have been that in that regard. Frustrated and unconvinced by the government’s vows, many have been calling on the government to just resign.

The price of fuel has also remained intimidatingly high, affecting citizens as well as professionals in the transport sector such as taxi drivers.

Recently, some companies have even been accused of importing Russian gas at discounted prices and forging receipts and import documents to be able to hike up prices on the Moroccan market.