A 100% Moroccan antibiotic on the market!

Last February, Sothema Laboratories launched an antibiotic 100% made in Mo­rocco. Its designer, Adnane Remmal, an internationally renowned researcher, professor at the Moham­med Ben Abdellah University in Fez, claims to be the creator of «the first originator drug in the history of Mo­rocco that is the fruit of local research and industry». «Until then, we only made generics or biosimilar drugs. This remedy is also the first antibiotic boosted against multiresistant bacte­ria in the world. We have also filed patents everywhere, in the US, in Europe, China, India, Eurasia, South Africa and the Middle East,» he says.

Called Olipen, the drug combines penicillin, cineol, and beta-lactamase.The medicine can be used to treat various infections in adults and child­ren over 12 years old (urinary, dental, respiratory tract, joints, skin, middle ear, and sinuses).

For Adnane Remmal, this was the culmination of a whole career dedi­cated to research on the molecules of essential oils. It took him nearly thirty years to finally see his remedy marketed. «This is a great scientific breakthrough and we are very proud of it. I’m sure that this medicine will go beyond our borders,» testifies Adil Zanfari, president of Genpharma, member of the Moroccan Generic Drugs Association.

As a young researcher in the 1990s, Adnane Remmal devoted his state PhD thesis, obtained in 1994, to the antibacterial action of essential oils. He had not chosen his theme at random. After securing a French PhD in pharmacology of cardiovascular diseases, Adnane Remmal preferred to return to Morocco. He immediately made the rounds of doctors, pharma­cists, and health professionals to take note of their expectations and offer his services as a researcher. A problem emerged, namely the absence of an antibiotic that could eradicate the re­sistant bacteria. Remmal got in touch with some great researchers who worked on the antimicrobial action of essential oils, namely one microbiolo­gist, Abdelrhafour Tantaoui El Araki, and one chemist, Bachir Benjilali. Their work served as a basis for his investigations. Remmal´s experiments then highlighted the «potentiation» of the antimicrobial action of antibiotics, thanks to essential oils. After his state thesis, Remmal thought of protecting his discovery, but he came up against two obstacles: the absence of an en­tity issuing patents in Morocco and an exorbitant cost abroad. Towards the beginning of the 2000s, a meeting finally enabled Adnane Remmal to move forward, i.e. the meeting with a business angel, who is none other than Ahmed Reda Chami, currently pre­sident of the Economic, Social, and Environmental Council. At the time, Chami was a young boss of Micro­soft in Asia, passionate about inno­vation and new technologies. Chami invested nearly 5 million Dirhams (500,000 USD) for 5 patents pro­tecting Remmal ‘s discoveries. With a third partner, Driss Squalli, doctor in genetics, co-founder, and CEO of Genome Biotechnologies, they set up a company, Advanced Science Deve­lopment (ADS) to file patents. «I then turned to Moroccan industrialists to develop my antibiotic. They all found the project excellent, however, they said they were too small to embark onto the project,» said the researcher. Only one industrialist dared to embark on the adventure, the late Omar Tazi, president of Sothema, who continued to pay the patent fees. Additional research and clinical trials then fol­lowed.

In 2017, Adnane Remmal won the European Inventor award and received a royal decoration. His new fame makes him gain confidence and legitimacy, in particular with the Mo­roccan Ministry of Health which had received the application for the mar­keting authorization for the boosted antibiotic. Authorization was issued only in May 2021. Several tens of millions of Dirhams (MAD) (several million USD) had to be spent for the drug to come into being.

Ahlam NAZIH