Morocco Advances Biomedical Research with New Regulations on Clinical Trials

In February 2018, LEMM had organized the first national conference dedicated to biomedical research, opened by the Head of Government and which brought together leading national and international researchers and scientists. During the conference, a White Paper was published in order to make Morocco the top 3 in African clinical research over the next five years. The research industry could allow the kingdom to earn more than one billion dirhams in annual turnover.

In addition to this prospect, the application of the decrees of Law No. 28-13 and the concordance of the texts with the European Directives No. 536/2014 of 16/04/2014, three other recommendations are included in this book. These are the creation of a one-stop shop and single notification by the Ministry of Health, the simplification of study approval procedures and the reduction of deadlines to 30-45 days, and the implementation of the research tax credit.

In the same vein, three working committees emerged from the conference and placed under the supervision of the Ministry of Health. They presented their work in 2020, before their adoption last Thursday. In addition, patients at the heart of this process "will benefit from ethical care, respecting their dignity, their physical and moral integrity and requiring their informed consent," said Professor of Rheumatology Najia Hajjaj Hassouni, former Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy of Rabat.

And, since "the cornerstone of research is first and foremost training [...], universities must develop high value-added training for research professions," said Professor Chakib Nejjati, President of Mohammed VI University of Health Sciences and one of the coordinators of the biomedical research working committees. For years, Morocco can be proud to host on its territory the most famous laboratories of clinical research in the world, which is a great opportunity for the kingdom in biomedical research.