Rabat – Morocco’s Ministry of Health and Social Protection firmly denied accusations made in Parliament regarding alleged privileges or monopolies in the importation of potassium chloride (KCl), an essential drug used in intensive care, surgery, and anesthesia.
During Thursday’s parliamentary session on the first part of the 2026 Finance Bill, MP Abdellah Bouanou of the PJD claimed that the ministry had granted a temporary authorization (ATU) to a government minister who owns a pharmaceutical company.
He alleged that the company imported KCl from China and that the product carried information written in Chinese, which he said prompted its withdrawal because doctors were unable to read the instructions.
In its statement, the ministry dismissed the remarks as baseless and harmful to national efforts to ensure medication safety and continuity of hospital care.
It explained that the country recently faced a shortage of potassium chloride due to a temporary shutdown by a local manufacturer undergoing expansion and modernization.
The Moroccan Medicines Agency intervened under Law 17.04 by helping the manufacturer expedite production, supporting another Moroccan company to begin local manufacturing, and granting temporary import authorizations to any operator meeting strict legal and technical requirements.
These measures, the ministry said, will remain in place until national supply is fully restored.
The ministry stressed that these temporary authorizations do not grant any preferential treatment in public procurement, noting that tender procedures automatically prioritize nationally authorized products in full compliance with the law.
All KCl purchases, it added, were conducted through transparent and legal procurement processes open to domestic producers.
University hospitals, which have administrative and financial autonomy, follow the same procurement procedures to ensure integrity and transparency, the ministry said.
