Turkey's new COVID-19 drug ready for human testing

TR-C 19, a COVID-19 drug developed by Turkey’s Health Sciences University (SBU) and VSY Biotechnology company, will be administered to patients soon.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency (AA), SBU Rector Cevdet Erdöl said Turkey has taken some serious steps in the challenge to find a cure for the new coronavirus. He added that TR-C 19 is one such example ready to be tested on volunteers. The drug will soon be licensed.

Erdöl said collaboration between Turkey's universities and the health care industry has become more important than ever due to the pandemic.

“TR-C 19, which is also supported by the Health Ministry, neutralized the coronavirus previously isolated in the laboratory. It is ready to be tested on volunteer COVID-19 patients. We are waiting for the necessary approvals and planning to license TR-C 19 soon,” Erdöl noted.

VSY Biotechnology chairman, Ercan Varlıbaş, said the company operates in 66 countries and is using all its potential to help Turkey’s struggle against the coronavirus pandemic.

"VSY Biotechnology has done many groundbreaking research and development projects. COVID-19 drug TR-C 19 is one of its most important projects. The level of cooperation we've had with the SBU has an important role in bringing the drug to the implementation process in a short time,” Varlıbaş said.

Both Erdöl and Varlıbaş said developments regarding the TR-C 19 drug will be shared with the public soon.

The Turkish state and private corporations have mobilized to develop COVID-19 medicines and vaccines. The country has made huge investments to take precautions against pandemics. Turkey's top scientific body, TÜBİTAK, has invested TL 2.3 billion ($300 million) to develop 16 vaccine and other medicine projects over the past five years.

In addition, there are 16 medicine and vaccine projects run by the “COVID-19 Turkey Platform,” which includes 225 researchers from 25 universities, eight public research bodies and eight private firms.

Turkey’s Yunus Emre Institute has also launched an online scientific hub to help researchers working to develop a vaccine for COVID-19. The portal, covid19.tabipacademy.com, is a subsidiary project of the Academic and Scientific Cooperation Project of Turkey (TABİP). It is an online science diplomacy hub bringing Turkish and foreign researchers together to create a local, national science inventory for Turkey. The newly established portal allows all stakeholders who are working hard to find a cure for the coronavirus and allows professionals to follow the most up-to-date scientific studies and technological developments from reliable sources.