Morocco is currently ranked second in the Africa Industrialisation Index, behind South Africa, thanks to its growing manufacturing and export operations. If the ranking had been done 40 years ago, the north African country would be nowhere near the position it occupies now.
According to Mia Lahlou-Filling, CEO of Pharma 5, an indigenous Moroccan drug maker, 40 years ago, the production of 100 percent made in Morocco product was very hard but 40 years later, Morocco and the pharmaceuticals industry specifically have turned to a mindset of makers.
She made the revelation, Thursday at the Africa Investment Forum 2023 in the Palace Congress, Marrakech, Morocco.
“There is the strong vision of our king concerning industrialisation of our country, but also this led us to shift the mindset of entrepreneurship in Morocco,” Mia Lahlou-Filling said.
“Made in Morocco now is not only a motto but what we believe in and today a lot of young entrepreneurs or startup leaders want to produce Moroccan products,” she said.
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The CEO said the business she is running now with her sister was created by their father 40 years ago.
“His idea was to create a pharmaceutical industry to allow first our country, second our continent to be a sovereign image in the matter of access to healthcare,” she said.
Lahlou-Filling said: “The development of our business has really been by the global acceleration of industry in our country.
“My company is 100 percent specialised in generic drugs and we have integrated 80 percent of the value chain. We do our own research and development, we develop our products, we produce them, we control them and we distribute them.
“Today we are a leader of generic drugs in Morocco with more than 20 percent of the market share,” she said.
She added that more than 25 percent is exported, we have a very wide range of products, and we are very specialised in antibiotics.
“Today, Europe has shortages of antibiotics but we don’t have shortages of antibiotics because we produce them locally. We are approved by more than 40 countries that we are exporting to and we are allowed to export to Europe,” Lahlou-Filling said.
