Atabay Pharmaceuticals and Fine Chemicals Inc. has been working for 83 years with the aim of making Türkiye independent in terms of pharmaceuticals by developing drugs that can enter any household in need. Atabay, which is one of the leading companies that make R& D investments and raise human resources in Türkiye for drug active substance synthesis and biosimilar development, plans to develop 100% domestic drugs from plants grown in our country.
Atabay Pharmaceuticals, which set out with the goal of ‘making Türkiye self-sufficient in medicine’ and became one of the leading companies in the industry in the production of pharmaceutical active substances and the development of prepared pharmaceuticals, is celebrating its 83rd anniversary. Atabay Pharmaceuticals and Fine Chemicals Inc. whose foundations were established in 1939 by Pharmacist Ö. Kemalettin Atabay with the establishment of the ‘Oriental Center’ Pharmaceutical Warehouse, has GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices) approval by the Ministry of Health in all its facilities. Atabay, which is among the leading companies that invest in R& D and train human resources in the development of biotechnological drugs and biosimilars
Atabay, which is among the leading companies that invest in R&D and raise human resources in the development of biotechnological drugs and biosimilars, has become the only producer of these raw materials in Europe and the nearby geography thanks to the backward integration of Paracetamol, Oseltamivir, Favipiravir raw materials and the good synthesis method developed over time. Delivering these raw materials to 35 countries of the world, Atabay’s biotechnology investment, which started in 2013 by developing Enoxaparin, one of Türkiye’s first biotechnological productions, continued with the establishment of a microbial biosimilar R& D and production facility. Biotechnology and Vaccine R& D, Small Molecule Synthesis, Standardized Plant Extraction R &D for the Acıbadem R& D Facility in 2019 and for the Gebze R& D Facility in 2022, by obtaining accreditation from the Turkish Ministry of Technology and Industry, are high-tech analytical It has become the only R& D Center that gathers laboratories under the same roof.
Strengthening its cooperation
Atabay, with its drug and vaccine R&D investments developed in the fight against Covid-19 during the pandemic period, ranked 75th in the ‘ Turkish Time R& D 250′ ranking in 2020, and is on its way to meet the needs of the public in difficult times. He showed his determination once again. Atabay Biotechnology is one of the 5 facilities that have GMP approval from the TR Ministry of Health, and one of the 3 facilities that have a microbial biosimilar production permit in our country. ‘Recombinant Protein RBD Subunit Vaccine’, which was developed by TÜBİTAK-supported İzmir Biomedicine and Genome Center (IBG) for the Covid-19 pandemic and is very critical in terms of being a platform vaccine technology, is being produced for clinical studies at the GMP-approved Atabay Biotechnology Facility. Atabay, which develops public-university-industry cooperation projects with 10 universities in Türkiye, also carries out strategic R& D projects with TUBITAK Marmara Research Center. Thanks to its membership to the University Industry Cooperation Center Platform- ÜSİMP, many universities in our country strengthen their cooperation with Technology Transfer Offices and Technoparks.
More than 100 licensed drugs
Atabay, which is the only company whose core competency and philosophy is the production of pharmaceutical active raw materials, works with the aim of moving domestic and national drug production forward and reducing foreign dependence in pharmaceuticals. Atabay has synthesized over 150 active pharmaceutical ingredients to date, and more than 100 drugs have been licensed. Atabay, who applied to the Technology-Oriented Industry Move Program to increase the production capacity of the domestic drug active ingredient, allocates its profits every year to the production facility, product development and R&D.
Atabay, which was the first company to bring TÜBİTAK KAMAG-supported national biosimilar R&D to the stage of clinical studies in August 2021, obtained the Microbial Vaccine GMP Pilot Production Facility permit for the Biotechnology Facility in 2021 and prepared a vaccine sample for clinical studies. Atabay further expanded the ‘seed-to-shelf’ domestic and national herbal medicine project from our country’s fields by strengthening its cooperation with TÜBİTAK MAM, Universities and startups, and establishing a new platform in the GBTU product portfolio it developed.
It will focus on export
Zeynep Atabay, Chairwoman of Atabay, emphasized that they aim to develop
100% domestic drugs. Atabay said, “We are the third-generation family company, which is based on the protection of human health and nature, produces and develops these drugs economically for the needs of the people, and undertakes this business as a national duty. We continue to develop synthesis, biotechnology and prepared products that have an impact in the near geography, believing in science, experience and collaborations with the duty of ‘health from the past to the future’. In the coming period, we will focus more on exports. Currently, over 90% of the pharmaceutical raw materials used in our country are met from abroad. We are one of the few leading companies in domestic production. We aim to reduce dependency on abroad.”
“We will develop the raw materials required for many drugs in our country”
Expressing that the pharmaceutical industry is one of the most prominent strategic areas for a country, besides the education, defense, energy and agriculture sectors, Zeynep Atabay said, “With climate change, pandemics and economic uncertainties, we have seen that strategic issues are within the country. You must be self-sufficient. As Atabay, our ‘stakeholder culture’ and ‘social purpose’ approach that we have established within us for years has enabled us to produce the necessary drugs much faster than many companies during the pandemic period. In the coming period, we will continue to develop new drugs and vaccines related to Covid-19 and the infectious diseases that may follow. In addition, we aim to develop the raw materials required for many drugs in our country, thanks to the capacity increase in our API production facility, which is our area of expertise.”
Companies will give more importance to cooperation with startups
Zeynep Atabay, who mentioned that biotechnological drugs come to the fore in the sector, said, “Biotechnological methods are also used in vaccine development. We expect investments in the field of vaccines and biotechnology to increase and the government to support this. When we say ‘new products, technologies’, these things happen through the structures called spin- offs in the world, whose R&D was done by inventive academicians within the university and then incorporated in technoparks. We will see this approach in our country in the near future. Companies that spin- off They will be able to cooperate with startups and develop innovative products.”
“Our goal is to develop drugs that can enter every household that needs it”
Zeynep Atabay said, “As Atabay, our goal has always been to make Türkiye independent in terms of drugs by developing drugs that can enter every household that needs it.” Zeynep Atabay said that in line with this vision, they plan to expand their drug-active substance facilities in a way that cuts foreign dependency. She added more, “We consider the Traditional Herbal Medicine Product (GBTÜ), namely herbal medicine, very important. We are planning to develop our 100% domestic medicine from plants grown in our country, grown by industrial agriculture using good agricultural practices (GAP). We have also set a zero-waste target for our facilities. For this reason, we will give more importance to industrial symbiosis projects in order to reduce our burden on our home, that is, on nature.”
