Morocco to Begin Local Production of Sinopharm Covid-19 Vaccine by Year’s End

As a result of King Mohammed VI’s determination to make Morocco a regional hub for the manufacture and distribution of vaccines, the Sinopharm vaccine manufacturing project is entering its implementation phase, reports the daily Al Ahdath Al Maghribia, which returns to the details of the memorandum signed on Monday.

According to the newspaper, by the end of the year, the Sothema laboratories should produce the Sinopharm vaccine. This involves both "production" and "fill & finish". The materialization of a national will expressed since August 2020 and which the Kingdom has just crossed.

Before the signing ceremony which brought together the Chinese officials of the Sinopharm laboratory and the private partners, the same source recalls that a Moroccan-Chinese expert commission carried out inspection visits in the Sothema production units. They went through everything with a fine-tooth comb, from the factory premises to the final production line intended for the manufacture of the vaccine.

It is, continues the newspaper, several production units that can reach a capacity of 5 million doses per month. The factory also has a refrigeration system consisting of cold rooms with a storage capacity of several million doses.

Once produced, the vaccine will be immediately placed in vials which are obviously made of glass, the only material capable of withstanding extreme temperature conditions.

The overall investment will represent 500 million dollars with the aim of enabling the establishment of vaccine manufacturing capacities in Morocco under the best conditions, and the development of what resembles a Sino-Moroccan pharmaceutical giant. It will be carried out with the support of a consortium of Moroccan banks and the contribution of the Hassan II Fund.