Moroccan drugmaker Galenica has shipped its first pharmaceutical export to Russia in partnership with Asia Pharm Group, a milestone the company describes as a historic first for a Moroccan, Arab and African pharmaceutical laboratory entering the Eurasian Economic Union market.
The shipment follows Galenica becoming the first Moroccan, Arab and African drugmaker to obtain GMP certification and the marketing authorizations required to sell products across the bloc, which groups Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan and guarantees free movement of goods, services, capital and labor among member states.
Russia’s trade representation in Morocco publicly confirmed the delivery, framing it as the first step in Galenica’s entry into the Eurasian market and the result of years spent aligning the company’s production with international quality and compliance standards. Founded more than 40 years ago, Galenica ranks among Morocco’s leading pharmaceutical manufacturers.
The move revives a partnership track that dates back to the Covid-19 pandemic, when Morocco authorized emergency use of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine in March 2021. At the time, Russian officials pointed to Morocco’s regional standing in Africa as a potential springboard for wider vaccine distribution on the continent, and Galenica was floated as a possible local manufacturer for the Russian shot.
The export also fits into Morocco’s broader push for pharmaceutical sovereignty. Speaking in Nairobi in May, Head of Government Aziz Akhannouch highlighted reforms including near-universal health insurance coverage, now reaching 88 percent of the population, and local drug production that covers more than 70 percent of national needs, arguing that health has become a matter of state security and sovereignty rather than a purely social concern.
