Moroccan Labs Protest Price Caps on COVID-19 Tests, Citing High Costs

The retail prices of SARS-CoV-2 virus detection tests are now regulated. Thus, the price of the RT-PCR test is set at 400 DH, the PCR Test and its isothermal variants (Rapid Test) at 600 DH, the Rapid Antigen Test under oropharyngeal and nasopharyngeal sampling at 190 DH, the Automated Quantitative Serological Test (IgM) at 170 DH, the Automated Quantitative Serological Test (IgG) at 170 DH and the Rapid Qualitative Serological Test at 120 DH.

Although laboratory directors adhere to this spirit of solidarity, they have reiterated the need to act on the value chain and in particular on the prices of reagents and consumables necessary for the realization of these tests.

The union chamber of biologists indicates in a press release that given the current price of reagents and consumables practiced by national distributors, added to the logistical costs and the various operating expenses, the costs set by the inter-ministerial commission risk seriously undermining the quality of the results rendered and discourage laboratories from initiating or maintaining the effort in the response against the virus.

Confident that the Moroccan authorities will lead the distributors to review the price of their products, the laboratory directors call for an urgent meeting with all the actors involved in the value chain, to study the decision to revise the prices of PCR tests to ensure a profit margin that could motivate laboratories in the Covid-19 screening.