Following its commitment to invest in Turkey, Gilead Sciences has introduced its first domestic products to the local market with the support of the Turkish Presidency’s Investment Office and in cooperation with Pharmactive, the company said in a press release Tuesday.

Turkey has become one of the global biotechnology company's newest production bases for its most innovative and life-saving medicines.

Accordingly, the company has started to produce its medicines for Hepatitis and HIV in Turkey.

Gilead, which started domestic production in cooperation with its partner Pharmactive with its vision of "In Turkey for Turkey," will thus be able to contribute around 70% to the volume of domestic products.

With this localization investment of approximately $60 million, the company will produce innovative medicines in the fields of Hepatitis and HIV in Turkey, which are identified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as the diseases for which access to drugs is most critical.

The series of HIV medicines produced in Turkey, which is one of the top 10 pharmaceutical products by revenue worldwide, was also launched in the second quarter of 2022.

Investment Office head Burak Dağlıoğlu, Gilead Sciences Turkey General Manager Şebnem Girgin and Pharmactive Board of Directors Chairperson Haluk Sancak recently attended a press conference held at Pera Palace in Istanbul to share the details of the investment.

Speaking at the event, Girgin, general manager of Gilead Sciences Turkey, said: "We have signed the first investment agreement with our business partner Pharmactive in 2019 with the vision of ‘In Turkey for Turkey.'"

"With the support of Pharmactive and our public stakeholders, we took a bold step and finally started production," she said.

"The difficulties in the supply chain during the pandemic period have once again proved to us how vital it is to be able to produce our own medicine as a country," Girgin noted, adding that this cooperation is also an important step in terms of the sustainability of the pharmaceutical supply.

"We are glad to be producing our innovative products in Turkey and to bring this know-how to our country."

Adding that Turkey has become one of Gilead’s production bases along with Germany, Canada and Ireland with this investment, Girgin stated, "This investment is a milestone for Turkey to become a potential export center in the pharmaceutical field, to be included in global supply chains and to produce new treatments that will be developed in the future in our country."

Emphasizing that Gilead, which celebrated its 15th anniversary in Turkey and 35th in the world, is a science-based company established to treat HIV/AIDS and other critical infectious diseases, Girgin said, "Our vision at Gilead is to wipe them off the face of the earth by developing the best solutions to these life-threatening diseases. In this context, Gilead has led efforts to transform diseases such as HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, hematology, oncology and systemic fungal infections from being deadly to manageable diseases."

Pharmactive’s Sancak, for his part, stated that when establishing Pharmactive within the Saya Group in 2011, the focus was on high production capacity and high-level competence.

"Our production with a high capacity of 330 million boxes per year, based on an advanced technology, universal quality standards, and is one of the leading pharmaceutical facilities not only in our country, but also in Europe," he said.

"We are one of the top five most productive plants in our country. Currently, we do half of our production for multinational companies. Pharmactive has about 200 licenses abroad and 170 in the country. We have a total of 900 employees," Sancak said.

"Pharmactive is now one of the four production bases of Gilead in the world for these products. We are proud of this," he added.

Dağlıoğlu, meanwhile, emphasized that the pharmaceutical sector is one of the most priority sectors for Turkey among international investments.

"As we have experienced closely in the last two years, we can overcome our common problems caused by global health crises that affect all of us only with international cooperation and information sharing, so that we can ensure the continuity of strong and healthy societies with a sustainable world vision. As an example of this, today we are witnessing a successful cooperation between the U.S. company Gilead, which is one of the important players in the global pharmaceutical industry today, and Pharmactive, the valuable name of the Turkish pharma industry," he went on to say.

Dağlıoğlu added that "As the Investment Office of the Presidency, we focus on increasing our share of global investments by bringing value-added and technology-based investments to our country."

"Thanks to this investment, our domestic pharmaceutical supply is strengthened, and our pharmaceutical imports are reduced by delivering the production technologies and know-how of Gilead’s patent-protected innovative products to our country. This investment, which we believe will contribute to the achievement of our country’s purpose of becoming an export center in the pharma industry, will inspire similar investments to be made with new international business associations for the coming periods," Dağlıoğlu said.