Cancer patients and people undergoing advanced medical scans in northern and eastern Morocco could benefit from better access to radioactive medicines after a new production plant began taking shape in Fez. Medical technology group T2S Group announced on 10 November that construction of the 60m dirham facility began on 1 October. The plant is expected to start operating in the second quarter of 2028, subject to construction progress and regulatory approval.
The project is being developed by Cyclopharma SA, a subsidiary of T2S Group, and represents an investment of 60m Moroccan dirhams, including taxes, equivalent to about $6m.
The new facility aims to increase local supplies of radiopharmaceuticals, drugs containing small amounts of radioactive material that help doctors diagnose and monitor diseases, particularly cancer, heart conditions and neurological disorders.
These medicines are used in nuclear medicine procedures, including positron emission tomography (PET) scans. They contain radioactive substances that lose their strength over time, making fast production and delivery essential.
One commonly used substance is Fluorine-18, which has a half-life of about 110 minutes. This means half of its radioactive activity disappears roughly every 110 minutes.
Transporting these medicines from Cyclopharma’s existing production site in Bouskoura-Oulad Saleh, near Casablanca, to Fez can therefore result in significant losses before they reach hospitals.
The journey covers about 300km and takes an estimated three and a half hours by road. Calculations provided for the project suggest that only 26.5% of the initial radioactivity would remain after that journey.
Local production could change that. A delivery taking 30 minutes from the new Fez plant would retain about 82.8% of the initial radioactivity, compared with 26.5% for a delivery from Bouskoura.
That would provide roughly 3.1 times more usable radioactive material per batch, potentially reducing delivery costs and improving supplies to hospitals and diagnostic centres across the region.
The facility is intended to serve the Fez-Meknes and Oriental administrative regions, which together have a population of more than 6.5 million people. It could also extend the company’s supply network towards cities such as Oujda and Nador.
The Fez plant will be Cyclopharma’s second production site in the country. Its existing facility operates in Bouskoura-Oulad Saleh, near Casablanca.
The new building will have six levels: two underground floors, a ground floor and three upper floors.
Its main equipment will include a shielded bunker housing a cyclotron, a type of particle accelerator used to produce radioactive substances known as radioisotopes.
The facility will also contain laboratories for manufacturing radiopharmaceuticals, quality-control units and radiological monitoring systems. Other areas will be dedicated to technical operations, secure storage, radioactive waste management and administrative work.
The design will incorporate specialised radiation protection, ventilation and waste-management systems, alongside the technical and regulatory requirements for this type of production.
The project forms part of T2S Group’s expansion strategy, presented when the company was listed on the Casablanca Stock Exchange in July 2026. The roadmap included increasing radiopharmaceutical production and developing a network of facilities rather than relying on a single production site.
Cancer diagnosis is a major source of demand for PET-CT scans, which help doctors detect tumours, assess the spread of cancer and monitor how patients respond to treatment.
The expansion of public and private healthcare facilities in the Fez-Meknes and Oriental regions has also increased the need for access to advanced diagnostic services. The two regions have populations of more than 4.2 million and 2.3 million respectively.
Local production could reduce dependence on imported medical isotopes and limit supply problems caused by transport delays. It would also make it easier for hospitals outside the Casablanca-Rabat corridor to obtain short-lived radioactive medicines.
The development of regional production facilities follows a model used in established healthcare markets in Europe and North America, where several production centres help supply hospitals within shorter distances.
Cyclopharma specialises in producing and distributing radiopharmaceutical drugs for nuclear medicine. Its parent company, T2S Group, is a medical technology company supplying healthcare professionals and institutions with equipment and solutions for medical imaging, radiotherapy, diagnosis and treatment in Morocco and abroad.
