Morocco’s Pharmacy Crisis: Health Sector Struggles as Closures Mount

On average, one to two pharmacies per week are closing in Morocco, reports Aujourd’hui Le Maroc, specifying that for some time now, the activity of pharmacies has taken a hit with the health crisis. Starting with wholesalers who are having difficulty with pharmacies that do not always manage to meet their payment deadlines.

Also, the President of the Order of Pharmacists, Hamza Guedira, urges the public authorities to upgrade the sector, stressing that a framework law will provide visibility to the sector in the years to come. The government’s decision to reduce the prices of some medicines is also not making things easier, he noted. For the record, for a few years now, Morocco has been committed to a policy of revising drug prices, in accordance with Decree 2-13-852.

"According to this text, the retail selling price (PPV) of a drug, manufactured locally or imported, is calculated from the ex-factory price excluding tax to which the profit margins and the value added tax (VAT) are added when it exists. These concern in particular distribution by the wholesaler and the retail pharmacist as well as import, which also covers approach costs and customs duties," the daily specified, adding that this revision can also lead to an increase and not always an automatic decrease as provided for in Article 16 of this decree.

In Morocco, per capita spending on medicines is below 400 DH per year, or less than $50.