The Moroccan Foundation for Advanced Science, Innovation and Research (MASciR) will start commercializing, within months, the first “made in Morocco” breast cancer and leukemia tests, to be the first African producer of the diagnostic kit, wrote the Guardian.
This pharmaceutical revolution is a significant step toward reducing the continent’s dependency on pharmaceutical imports and cutting costs, it added.
The majority of overpriced foreign imports used in Africa to diagnose cancer and other ailments are from the US and/or Europe. In African countries, an estimated 70% of pharmaceutical products and 99% of vaccines are imported, a situation that got worse due to Covid-19.
“The price of the kit is the double of what it would cost if produced locally. It is also a lengthy procedure. The kits can take weeks or months to arrive,” said Hassan Sefrioui, an executive board member of MASciR, which developed the new tests.
According to Sefrioui, work on the cancer kits has been ongoing since 2010, and 400 Moroccans have already used the leukemia tests.
Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer in Morocco and the primary cause of mortality in women.