From DMP to AMMPS: The Regulatory Authority Transition in Morocco

1. Key takeaways

The competent authority for medical devices in Morocco has switched from the Directorate of Medicines and Pharmacy of the Ministry of Health (DMP) to the Moroccan Agency for Medicines and Health Products (AMMPS). The legal basis is Loi n° 10-22 (promulgated by Dahir n° 1-23-54 on July 12, 2023) together with Décret n° 2.23.1055 (adopted by the Government Council in July 2024). For submitting companies, the switch brings three concrete consequences. First, the addressee of every submission changes its name. Second, the older ministerial orders still read DMP in their text even though the executing body has changed. Third, the operational checklists have been renumbered and re-versioned under the new agency. GRZAN’s position is that the reliable test for what governs a given step is the issuer of the document and the version of the checklist being applied, not the agency name printed on an older ministerial order. Teams that keep working from the institutional label on legacy paperwork risk addressing applications to a body that no longer exists under that name, or following superseded form versions that the new agency no longer accepts at intake.

2. Legal basis

The table below sets out the instruments that carry the institutional transition. Note the pairing of the agency-creation law and its implementing decree with the device-specific provisions that continue to define the registration obligation itself.

3. Expert insights

Insight 1: The transition is phased, not a single-day switchover. Public information verified by GRZAN shows that the first board of directors of AMMPS convened in 2025, that DMP staff began transferring to the new agency from 2025 onward, and that 2026 marks the move to full operation. This means that inside the transition window, a single dossier can legitimately contain documents bearing both the old and the new institutional names: a site declaration form from one cycle, correspondence with the old letterhead from another. Project records should anticipate this mixed appearance and log which name applies to which document, so that reviewers do not mistake legitimate transition-era paperwork for an inconsistency or an error.

Insight 2: The agency name on the older ministerial orders does not update itself. The texts of Arrêté n° 2855-15 and its companion orders still refer to the competent authority under its former designation. Legally, those provisions remain in force; what changed is the executing body, now AMMPS. A company that tries to challenge a new agency requirement on the argument that “the ministerial order says DMP” has no footing. The instrument governs; the institution enforcing it has been renamed and re-founded by Loi n° 10-22. Reading the order and the creation law together, rather than either in isolation, is the only defensible interpretive approach.

Insight 3: The practical carrier of the transition is the re-versioning of the checklists. The current AMMPS registration checklist is form DE ER DM/01, version 9, applicable as of January 30, 2025, while the establishment declaration checklist is form DE RD-IS-PS/04, version 01, applicable as of May 11, 2026. These two version references are the most direct anchor for answering the question of what the current requirements actually are at any given moment. Whoever holds the current version controls the dossier format, the supporting-document list and the intake experience, which is why both references belong in the project master file rather than in an email thread.

Insight 4: The online platform does not yet cover devices. GRZAN understands that the Tarkhiss online platform launched by AMMPS in March 2026 currently covers cosmetics rather than medical devices; device dossiers are still prepared with offline software and submitted through the established channel. This point is a practical estimate, and each company should confirm the submission channel in force at kickoff directly with its licensed establishment rather than assuming continuity from quarter to quarter.

4. Practical recommendations

1. Address all external documents to AMMPS uniformly, and keep an internal annotation noting the former name DMP, so that a single project never carries two competing agency names in its formal correspondence.
2. Make the checklist version a contract annex. In the agreement with the licensed establishment, state expressly which checklist version the dossier will be built against, and allocate responsibility and cost for rework when the checklist is re-issued.
3. Verify the current status of the licensed establishment. Check the candidate partner in the register of declared establishments published by AMMPS for its declared activity types (manufacturing, import, export, distribution, maintenance); an establishment declared only for distribution cannot act as the importer of record for the project.
4. Run a quarterly authority-watch. Track whether AMMPS has published a new submission channel or checklist version, so the project never inherits the previous quarter’s submission method by inertia.

5. Verification checklist

• □ The reference of Loi n° 10-22 has been confirmed as Dahir n° 1-23-54, dated July 12, 2023
• □ The adoption and publication status of Décret n° 2.23.1055 has been confirmed
• □ The addressee named in all project documents is AMMPS, uniformly applied
• □ The current version number and applicable date of registration checklist form DE ER DM/01 have been obtained
• □ The current version number and applicable date of establishment declaration checklist form DE RD-IS-PS/04 have been obtained
• □ The declared activity types of the licensed establishment have been checked against the needs of this project
• □ The current dossier submission method (online or offline) has been confirmed with the licensed establishment

Regulatory information verified as of October 30, 2026. GRZAN provides registration and compliance support for the Moroccan market, including authority-transition tracking, checklist version control, dossier preparation for AMMPS, and licensed-establishment coordination. For project inquiries, contact info@grzanglobal.com.