Kiosk 360. Morocco is actively participating in clinical trials for a new vaccine against Covid-19. If successful, the Kingdom could even become a producing country.
It is one of these types of cooperation that arouses many hopes. And the one put in place by the Kingdom of Morocco and the People’s Republic of China is one of them, since it involves participating in the planetary effort for the discovery of a vaccine against the coronavirus. Thus, Morocco is preparing to launch, at the beginning of the week, clinical trials of a new Chinese vaccine on 1,000 to 2,000 volunteers, the daily tells us. Al Ahdath Al Maghribia in its Monday, August 24 edition.
Obeying the strictest standards and strongly supervised on the legal plan, these tests will relate to individuals of different ages. These people will undergo a battery of medical analyzes to establish their state of health and rule out any chronic illness or Covid-19 contamination.
According to a medical source cited by the daily, the aim of these trials is to measure the degree of effectiveness of this new vaccine and to detect possible side effects on the patients concerned, who will be subjected to rigorous medical and clinical monitoring.
For clarification, last Thursday, two cooperation agreements between Morocco and the Chinese laboratory “Sinopharm CNBG” (China National Biotec Group Company Limited) were signed. The objective is to involve Morocco in clinical trials of an anti-Covid19 vaccine, indicated the Minister of Health, Khalid Aït Taleb.
“This Moroccan-Chinese collaboration will allow the Kingdom to ensure that Moroccan citizens will be among the first served in terms of vaccination against the coronavirus”, underlined the minister in charge at the end of the signing ceremony via video conference , simultaneously in Rabat and Beijing, of these agreements.
As a bonus, Morocco could even become a producer country of this vaccine, thanks to centuries-old cooperation between the two countries. The agreements concluded will allow Morocco to have its own vaccine as soon as possible. According to the sources ofAl Ahdath Al Maghribia, these tests and trials will be carried out in several stages. And it is the reference Moroccan pharmaceutical laboratory, namely Sothema, which was authorized to carry them out in the Kingdom, under the control of the Ministry of Health.
The first results of these trials, which automatically exclude minors, pregnant women and the elderly or frail, will be known within 15 days, even if a maximum period of 1.5 months has been set to confirm the results. Several other countries have signed similar agreements with China. It should be noted that this is phase III, which is the most decisive, of the trials carried out with this new vaccine.
However, precise al mass in its edition of this same Monday, August 24, it will be necessary to avoid making Moroccans new guinea pigs in this global vaccine race led by the great powers. In a written question, the Istiqlalien group in the House of Representatives was also the first to raise this question. He criticizes the supervisory authorities for not getting directly involved in this research and asks them to guarantee the safety of volunteers in clinical trials.
As a reminder, and Le360 was on the front line to report it: as soon as the epidemic appeared, China and Morocco started a close and fruitful cooperation. The foreign ministers of the two countries had several telephone conversations to set up concrete cooperation. This has enabled Morocco to be among the first beneficiaries of screening kits and basic care and equipment.
King Mohammed VI’s foresight and anticipatory spirit have gone through this. As we will remember, a strategic partnership was concluded in May 2016 in Beijing by the sovereign and President Xi Jinping, marking a qualitative leap in Sino-Moroccan relations.
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