Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd, India’s top drugmaker by sales, said its Moroccan unit has started functioning, giving it direct access to a $1 billion pharmaceuticals market. The unit, Ranbaxy’s third in Africa, will also help the company supply products to other north African countries in future, it said on Monday. Ranbaxy’s Africa sales rose 23 per cent to $189 million in 2011, it had said last month. The drugmaker, majority owned by Japan’s Daiichi Sankyo, has sales staff of about 1,000 in 44 African countries and makes drugs in Nigeria and South Africa.