Octapharma opens representative office in Morocco

Octapharma has opened a new representative office in Morocco as part of the Group’s strategic ambition to increase market penetration and expand into new geographies. The new office will play a key role in coordinating marketing activities in the region and serve as a hub for interactions with key opinion leaders and healthcare professionals, organizing events and frequent training sessions on diseases and products.

Why Africa?

Africa is a challenging area. A continent with 54 countries with distinct regulatory systems, and unique opportunities for international pharmaceutical industries. The industry's growth is expected to be driven by three main factors: the expansion of major cities, increased healthcare spending and a maturing business environment.

The accelerated economic growth ranks the continent as the world's third-most rapidly expanding region fostering a developing middle class, despite its troubled history. Pharmaceutical trends in Africa indicate a flourishing trajectory making it an attractive market for Octapharma strategic expansion efforts.

With a population of 1.2 billion people, Africa has a predominantly young demographic and urbanization is on the rise. Emerging megacities coexist with villages in rural healthcare access.

The pharmaceutical industry in Africa encounters dissimilar technological levels and infrastructure gaps, impacting on disease diagnosis. Out-of-pocket purchases, especially for essential medicines with high treatment costs, are widespread. Africa's 54 countries operate with independent regulatory systems, leading to challenges in ensuring medicine quality and over 50 national regulatory bodies function independently.

The Africa Countries Project (ACP)

In 2010, Octapharma Italy assumed responsibility for operations in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya. Through a network of pharmaceutical distributors/agents, targeting a population of 800 million, Octapharma has expanded to cover a total of 44 African countries. The company has adopted a strategic approach by prioritizing markets through a "City-Level" strategy. This means creating a pharmaceutical distributors network and establishing a basic product portfolio with a higher potential success rate in the targeted areas. The company focuses on identifying and sustaining product registration procedures, submitting dossiers and obtaining special import permits until products are registered. In addition, Octapharma is actively supporting local partners by providing product knowledge and promotional assistance. The business plan focused on enhancing the distribution strategy through training programs, increased control over processes, and cooperation with governments and healthcare specialists.

The new-born representative office

Establishing a representative office in a strategically significant country is essential. The company takes shape as a motivated entity committed to raising awareness about rare diseases. The office will play a key role in coordinating marketing activities with distributors through regular communication. It also will serve as a hub for organizing frequent training sessions on diseases and products. Furthermore, the office will facilitate productive interactions with local Key Opinion Leaders. The choice of location is critical in this context.

Why Morocco?

Morocco was selected as the prime location due to its distinction as one of the most advanced African countries, additionally the presence of qualified local talents supported the decision. Casablanca, with its well-connected airport from Italy, added appeal to the overall.

The representative office opening project, culminated in its finalization at the close of 2023, driving by promising market growth and positive prospects, identified, and acknowledged over the years.

Alberto Mancin (Octapharma Italy General Manager and V.P. Africa) says: “I am delighted to announce the establishment of the first Octapharma representative office in Africa, following an extensive process aligned with the region’s growth. The goal was intensive as navigating through Morocco distinctive market regulations demanded a strong commitment from the Octapharma Africa team based in Italy whom I thank a lot. We are confident that this is just the commencement of a wider Octapharma presence in the area and as the event took place following my taking over of the responsibility for the area, this doubles my pride. At present the office is operatively managed by M.me Mina Ahmed (Brand Manager) but we have plans to growour organization there, aiming at strengthening our assistance to both French and English-speaking countries in that geography”.