[ACCI-CAVIE] On the occasion of the Health-Africa Meeting “Pharma Africa Meeting”, Khalid Ait Taleb, Minister of Health, stressed that the commitment of the Kingdom in favor of the development of the drug and pharmacy sector, at the continental level, is a strategic choice.
In a speech read on his behalf, by the Director of the Directorate of Drugs and Pharmacy at the Ministry of Health, Aziz Mrabti, at the opening of the meeting Health-Africa “Pharma Africa Meeting”, organized on the sidelines of the 20th edition of the Officine Expo, the Minister of Health reaffirmed the commitment of the Kingdom for the development of the sector of drugs and pharmaceuticals on the African continent.
Recalling that this meeting is held a few months before the 1st African Conference on Health Risk Reduction, which will enshrine the principle of indivisibility of national health security and sovereignty and those of the continent, the Minister said that Morocco “is also committed, and always, to make cooperation with Africa a strategic choice.
A collaborative approach for a territorial vision
“Our country will strive to strengthen and promote its multilateral relations with African countries to establish a true partnership as a cornerstone for solidarity and mutual benefit, as part of South-South cooperation that opens promising prospects for sustainable development,” he said.
In this regard, Ait Taleb noted that the Kingdom, aware of the challenges faced by regulatory systems for product registration in Africa and the extreme importance of establishing an effective regional harmonization system of the registration process of drugs, expresses its commitment to this regional collaborative approach, whose objective is to improve the health of populations by increasing access to medical products of good quality, safe and effective.
He took this opportunity to recall that the Kingdom is committed, following the royal guidelines, in a large-scale societal project through a development scheme aimed at meeting the expectations of the population in terms of social services, while falling within the ultimate goal of the Moroccan nation to honor its commitment to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
“This has given rise to the opening of major reform projects, including that relating to the extension of medical coverage,” he said, noting that the Kingdom is in the process of achieving this major reform in all its dimensions through the generalization of the compulsory health insurance scheme (AMO), which was achieved by the end of 2022 and which affects the entire Moroccan population, including the most vulnerable.
In this context, Ait Taleb noted that his department is committed to an overhaul of the national health system based on four guiding principles, represented by the adoption of good governance, through the creation of the High Authority for Health, the Moroccan Agency for Drugs and Health Products, the Territorial Health Groups, as well as the Moroccan Agency for Blood and its derivatives. This renewed system also focuses on the development of human resources, the development of health services and the digitalization of the health system.
The Kingdom relies on South-South cooperation
The Minister stressed that the Kingdom, aware of the fundamental importance of drug sovereignty, especially in the era of Covid-19, has invested in the updating of its national pharmaceutical policy, one of its main measures is to establish a solid regulatory framework and strengthen the partnership of the Moroccan pharmaceutical sector by opening more on the African geographical environment.
The Minister also welcomed the choice of the theme “The pharmacist at the heart of innovation and interdisciplinarity around the patient”, which corroborates “the permanent attention that the Department of Health attaches to the proper implementation of the pharmaceutical policy in the Kingdom, particularly in its component “accessibility, safety and quality of medicines and health products”.
At the same time, this clearly reflects the firm belief that access to quality medicines at fair prices must be an integral part of the promotion of partnership and South-South Cooperation that the Kingdom advocates in the field of health, “said Ait Taleb.
The meeting “Health-Africa, Pharma Africa Meeting”, held on the sidelines of the exhibition “Officine Expo”, for its 6th edition, was enhanced by the presence of five ministers from Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, Senegal, Canada and Morocco, as well as the participation of leading experts who will engage in the debate on the promotion “One Health, One World”, and the development of South-South cooperation in the promotion of quality medicines.
By S.K. and LB