Clinical Research: Morocco’s Strategic Capacity Push
Analysis of Morocco’s clinical-research capacity push, covering the new decree, AMMPS, sponsor attractiveness, specialized skills, health data and the MAD 8 billion R&D target.
On 15 May 2026, the Moroccan Federation of Pharmaceutical Industry and Innovation (FMIIP) held a national symposium in Casablanca dedicated to clinical research, in partnership with the CRO Eshmoun Clinical Research, under the theme "Clinical research in support of faster access to innovative, generic and biosimilar medicines." The meeting took place in a particular context: on 4 May 2026, the Official Bulletin published a new decree amending and supplementing the provisions governing biomedical research and clinical trials involving human participants. These two events, close together in time, raise a question that goes beyond the technical field alone: does Morocco now have the concrete conditions needed to move from a modernized regulatory framework to real operational capacity in clinical research?
The question is all the more strategic because the FMIIP has set a quantified horizon: reaching MAD 8 billion in R&D spending by 2035. To be met, this objective requires simultaneous transformation of the ethical framework, university-hospital infrastructure, investigator training and the country’s attractiveness for international sponsors.
1. A Growing but Marginal Market
The figures presented during the symposium make it possible to locate Morocco precisely within the global clinical-research economy. According to IQVIA data cited by the FMIIP, global health research and development spending reached USD 250 billion in 2025, up 5.7%. Clinical trials account for more than a quarter of that total, or USD 66 billion. At continental scale, Africa’s clinical-trials segment is estimated at nearly USD 1 billion, with 8% growth. The Moroccan market is valued at USD 25 million, with 10% growth.
These orders of magnitude deserve close reading. Morocco’s growth is higher than the continental and global averages, reflecting real momentum. But the country’s absolute weight remains limited: USD 25 million represents about 2.5% of the African market and less than 0.04% of the global clinical-trials market. In an environment where international sponsors choose among dozens of competing destinations, this scale differential is decisive. It means Morocco is not yet considered by default as a reference clinical geography, and that any progress will have to be won against established competitors.
2. The New Regulatory Framework: What the 4 May 2026 Decree Changes
The decree published in the Official Bulletin of 4 May 2026 introduces several structuring changes. It gives the Moroccan Agency for Medicines and Health Products (AMMPS) a central role in processing and monitoring authorization requests for biomedical research. Files will now have to be submitted through a dedicated electronic platform. The text also opens the way to an accelerated procedure for certain biomedical research conducted in health or epidemic emergency contexts, and allows AMMPS to rely on assessments carried out by bodies recognized by the World Health Organization in the context of international multicenter clinical trials.
This last point is probably the most important for Morocco’s attractiveness to foreign sponsors. Mutual recognition of WHO assessments is one of the most effective regulatory levers for reducing authorization timelines, which, according to stakeholders present at the symposium, are among the main obstacles to setting up international clinical trials. The decree follows on from Law 28-13 on the protection of persons participating in biomedical research, whose implementing texts were published in 2021 and which has since formed the legal foundation of Morocco’s system.
Still, publishing a text does not create an ecosystem. The operational question is whether AMMPS can absorb the expected flow of files, meet timelines competitive with international standards, and effectively deploy the announced electronic platform.
3. Pharmaceutical Dependence Structures the Issue
Clinical research does not develop in isolation. It is inseparable from the industrial structure of the national pharmaceutical sector, and this is where Morocco’s situation presents a documented ambivalence. Morocco’s pharmaceutical industry covers 80% of the country’s medicine needs and makes Morocco the second-largest pharmaceutical producer in Africa, after South Africa, and the fifth in the MENA region. The sector includes 50 industrial pharmaceutical establishments (EPI).
But this 80% volume coverage does not tell the whole story. In value terms, local production covers only 57% to 60% of needs. And the recent import trajectory is concerning: medicine imports rose from MAD 9.5 billion during the first nine months of 2025 to MAD 14.9 billion between October 2025 and February 2026. Despite a local industry capable of producing treatments covering up to 80% of national needs, the country remains dependent on imports for essential medicines, and in March 2024 about 1,200 medicines, or 19.3% of the 6,211 available references, were out of stock in Moroccan pharmacies.
This dependence is not just a macroeconomic parameter. It weighs directly on the clinical-research ecosystem. Countries absent from clinical-data production expose themselves to increased dependence on results generated elsewhere. In other words, as long as Morocco does not generate a significant share of the clinical data on the treatments it consumes, its ability to negotiate prices, adapt protocols to local patient profiles and participate in international therapeutic decisions remains structurally limited.
4. Obstacles Identified by Stakeholders
The FMIIP symposium precisely documented what currently separates Morocco from a real increase in capacity. Speakers pointed to several major obstacles, including unpredictable timelines, lack of coordination among stakeholders and insufficient specialized skills. In a highly competitive international environment, these constraints can divert clinical-trial promoters elsewhere.
These three obstacles deserve to be examined separately, because they depend on different levers for action.
Unpredictable timelines.
This is probably the point on which the 4 May 2026 decree will have the most direct impact, provided that the AMMPS electronic platform is actually deployed and measurable service commitments are published. International sponsors compare countries using precise indicators: median authorization timeline, rate of requests for additional information and predictability of decisions. As long as Morocco does not publish these indicators, it remains difficult to assess for a clinical-studies director based in Basel, Boston or Singapore.
Lack of coordination among stakeholders.
This concerns coordination among AMMPS, ethics committees, university hospitals, faculties, the Ministry of Health and industry. Fragmented decision-making is one of the main cost drivers for foreign promoters, who must deal with multiple interlocutors without visibility on internal arbitrations. Establishing an operational single window, beyond the regulatory digital portal, remains an open project.
Insufficient specialized skills.
This is probably the heaviest obstacle to lift, because it requires a medium- to long-term training policy. Modern clinical research mobilizes profiles that Morocco’s university-hospital system still trains in limited numbers: clinical research associates (CRAs), data managers, biostatisticians, pharmacovigilance specialists and methodologists. The ability to train these profiles at scale and retain them directly conditions the possibility of hosting large-scale phase II and III trials.
5. Health Data: An Underestimated Prerequisite
Modern clinical research increasingly relies on real-world data, pharmacovigilance and digital tools. This point, raised during the symposium, deserves emphasis: it is a prerequisite that discussions on clinical research tend to underestimate.
In practical terms, a country’s attractiveness to international sponsors now depends as much on its regulatory capacity as on the quality of its health-information systems. A multicenter clinical trial requires usable patient records, structured disease registries, robust pharmacovigilance and minimum interoperability between facilities. Morocco has several initiatives in this area, including the National Digital Health Card and digital projects led by the Ministry of Health, but their effective deployment in university hospitals and their qualification against international standards (GCP, ICH-E6 R3) remain to be documented.
6. The MAD 8 Billion Horizon: What the Figures Require
The objective announced by the FMIIP, to reach MAD 8 billion in R&D spending by 2035, can be read as a mobilizing horizon. But it also needs to be translated into concrete requirements.
If we use the estimate that the development potential of biomedical research in Morocco is nearly MAD 1 billion per year, the target of MAD 8 billion cumulatively by 2035 would imply a sustained growth path from a current base estimated at around MAD 250 million per year, equivalent to the USD 25 million clinical-trials market. That means multiplying annual activity by 3 to 4 over a decade.
This ramp-up is not out of reach; the observed annual growth of 10% is higher than global and continental averages, but it will not continue mechanically. It requires a parallel increase in hosting capacity, meaning accredited investigator centers; skills, including CRAs, methodologists and pharmacovigilance specialists; and active sponsors in the country. Without these three pillars, the trajectory risks plateauing before the stated horizon.
7. What Still Needs to Be Decided
The proximity between the 4 May 2026 decree and the FMIIP symposium of 15 May outlines a strategic window. The legal framework is being modernized; industrial stakeholders are mobilizing; and growth figures exceed regional averages. But several decisions remain open.
The first concerns the ecosystem’s economic model. Creating an attractive environment for international sponsors requires specific choices on tax incentives, CRO service pricing and intellectual-property sharing on results. These choices have not been publicly settled.
The second concerns health-data governance. Data quality determines the methodological credibility of trials conducted in Morocco. The role of the CNDP (National Commission for the Control of Personal Data Protection), articulation with ethics committees and qualification of hospital systems against international standards form a cross-cutting project that goes beyond the decree alone.
The third concerns the university-hospital chain. Morocco’s attractiveness for phase II and III clinical trials ultimately depends on the number and quality of accredited investigator centers. The capacity of university hospitals to host industrial trials, in terms of technical platforms, availability of principal investigators and logistical coordination, is the final limiting factor.
Conclusion
Clinical research appears to be a real maturity test for Morocco’s health system. The 4 May 2026 decree laid an important regulatory building block; the FMIIP symposium documented stakeholder consensus on the need to act. But the gap between stated ambitions and operational capacity remains significant, and it will not be resolved by publishing a normative text alone.
The goal of MAD 8 billion in biomedical R&D by 2035 provides a compass, provided it is backed by measurable intermediate indicators: number of trials authorized per year, median AMMPS authorization timeline, number of trained principal investigators, number of accredited centers and share of international multicenter trials conducted in Morocco. Without these indicators, the quantified objective risks remaining declarative.
Morocco has the prerequisites: a structured pharmaceutical industry, a consolidated legal framework, growth above regional averages and now an assessment system aligned with WHO standards. What remains to be built is execution capacity: turning a normative framework into actual clinical-trial flows, training intentions into deployed skills, and the ambition of a regional hub into documented presence on the radar of international sponsors. It is in this shift from discourse to real capacity that Morocco’s effective place in the continental and global clinical-research economy will be decided over the next ten years.