Opinion

Morocco: the vaccine that does not arrive   

photo_camera Marruecos: la vacuna que no llega   

Waiting for Godot. In Morocco, the anti-Covid vaccine has crystallized all the debates and worries. The announcement of a vast vaccination campaign was made last November, but since then the long-awaited panacea has not been delivered and rumours are running wild.  

The kingdom had signed an agreement in August with the Chinese giant Sinopharm to participate in clinical trials following the example of Argentina, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Jordan and Peru. The singe contract between the two parties was accompanied by a delivery of 10 million doses in a first phase.  

But these were not the only wishes of Morocco, which was hoping for a strategic and regional pharmaceutical positioning. The kingdom hoped to manufacture the vaccine in its laboratories (Sothema had presented itself as an ideal candidate) and distribute it throughout the continent. But all this remained a pious wish.   

At the end of January, the vaccine ordered had still not arrived.   

The lack of information has created confusion and fuelled rumours of plotting. Everybody is asking the same question without finding an answer: why hasn't China delivered the medicine?  

Initially, its approval by Beijing was the announced argument to silence the bad tongues, but since the vaccine has been able to obtain all the necessary authorisations the question remains.   

All the more so since an emergency authorisation has been granted by Morocco to market the vaccine. For the record, there was even the ambition to begin vaccination even before the publication of phase III results, which is a decisive and important step before any new drug is put on the market.  

"Preparations are at a very advanced stage. Field exercises covering all stages of the process of vaccinating citizens have been put in place," said Health Minister Khalid Ait Taleb. But since then, the wait has been long. Moreover, the Minister of Health has been criticized for his management of the crisis. He has been criticized among other things for "making Moroccans laboratory guinea pigs.  

Adding to the worries and misunderstandings, the recent resignations of the President and CEO of Sinopharm have not helped matters.  The reasons for these departures remain unknown.   

In recent weeks and as if by mutual agreement, no one in the kingdom talks about the Chinese vaccine any more. The press and the interventions of the Minister of Health have turned to the Oxford laboratories and their flagship product Astrazeneca.  

It should be recalled that Morocco had announced the acquisition of 65 million doses of the Chinese Sinopharm and British AstraZeneca vaccines without specifying the share of each. But today, the question is to know if AstraZeneca will keep its promises because here again, the delivery seems to be postponed sine die.  

Even the Minister of Health no longer dares to say when it will be received. In a recent interview - closely followed on the national television channel 2M - the minister who could not pronounce on the date of arrival of the vaccine said that collective immunity would be reached in April promising Moroccans to perform their Ramadan prayers in the mosques as before!  

An announcement that made many smile and discredited the minister already in need of popularity.   

In recent months, the Moroccan press has not stopped announcing and denying the arrival of the long-awaited vaccine. And each time the disappointment was all the greater as hope was within reach.  

Lacking information and transparency, Moroccan journalists turned to the foreign media. To understand the delays in the arrival of the vaccine, one has to look in the direction of India. The vaccine from the Oxford laboratories awaited by Morocco is manufactured in this Asian country, one of the most populous on the planet (1.3 billion inhabitants). India, which is also one of the countries most affected in the world by Covid, has begun a vast vaccination campaign and obviously intends to use it first.  

The country that has produced a 100% made in India vaccine, Covaxin vaccine for the moment at Covishield, the local version of the vaccine developed by Oxford University. Rabat will have to wait its turn, but until when?  

In a final jolt, Rabat is trying to reposition itself and talks about the vaccine from Jonhson&Johnson. It is the Arabic-speaking newspaper Al Ahdath Al Maghribia which revealed possible negotiations between Morocco and the laboratory. Info or intox ? The future will tell us. What is certain is that the clinical tests of this vaccine will not be finalised before February. A series of authorisations for its marketing will follow if it proves to be effective, which is not a foregone conclusion either.  

In the meantime, the first case of the English Covid strain has been detected in Tangiers. New restrictive measures were quickly put in place by the kingdom banning flights to 4 new destinations. To be continued....