Espicom's in-depth pharmaceutical market reports are ideal for executives wanting to understand the key drivers in pharmaceutical markets and have access to a wealth of statistical data. Each report opens with an outlook section that provides analysis of the market, 5-year market forecasts, national data projections, market outlook and key developments such as regulation, pricing/reimbursement, intellectual property, health facilities and government policy. The report also provides extensive background information, population trends, health status, health expenditure, organisation & administration, hospital services, medical personnel, healthcare development, market access information, trade data for raw materials and finished products and essential industry contacts. Included with the report are 3 free quarterly updated outlook reports, enabling you to keep up to date with market developments for a year. The pharmaceutical sector in Morocco has entered a new phase of development with the adoption of new pharmaceutical legislation, which was published in the official journal in December 2006, having been passed by Parliament the preceding January. The new legislation replaces regulations dating back to 1960 and provides a modern legal framework for the pharmaceutical sector. One of its key aims is to open up the pharmaceutical sector to foreign investment by abolishing the requirement that pharmaceutical companies be majority-owned by a pharmacist. It also seeks to address some of the structural weaknesses inherent in the current system. A patent law has also been finally ratified after several years' delay, which although not meeting all the demands of the international pharmaceutical industry, does provide a much clearer legal framework regarding intellectual property rights.

Despite being a comparatively small market, Morocco has a well-developed pharmaceutical manufacturing industry, which in the 1990s covered 80% of the country's product needs. In recent years, however, the local industry has lost ground in the face of increasing competition from imported products, the bulk of which are supplied by France. Over 50% of the pharmaceutical companies operating in Morocco are owned by foreign interests, such as Sanofi-Aventis, GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, Bayer and Novartis, and these companies are responsible for more than half of industry turnover. Those companies that remain independent primarily manufacture under licence or produce generics. The Moroccan pharmaceutical industry has significantly increased its level of investment in recent years to around DH 300 million per annum (US$35 million), although this is still considered inadequate to allow the industry to prepare for the advent of the free trade zone with the EU in 2010.