THE OPENING OF GLP CERTIFIED DRUG ANALYSIS AND CONTROL LABORATORIES
Turkey’s first OECD GLP certified Drug Analysis and Control Laboratories were opened with a ceremony at IBG on Monday, 10th of August in IBG’s Aziz Sancar Auditorium.
The opening ceremony was honoured by members of the Dokuz Eylul University (DEU) management, associations, universities, biotech companies, media and the board of directors of IBG.
IBG’s Director Prof. Dr. Mehmet Öztürk, who delivered the opening speech, stated “Our main focus is to set Turkey free from being dependent on other countries for vaccine and drug production, and to provide R&D and technological support to national biotech companies, in order for them to be globally competitive. The laboratories at IBG gained great momentum by completing the R&D process of four biosimilars and one original biotechnological drug. The cell colonies of one of the biosimilars that we produced within the scope of a TUBITAK 1007 project have been delivered to our partner company DEVA A.Ş., and our communication with national biotech companies regarding three other biosimilars is in progress. Additionally, IBG, who brought together the biotech companies and seven universities in a national consortium, has just completed its application process to the TUBITAK 1004 fund on the production of two original drugs and two CAR-T cellular therapy drugs.”
DEU Vice Rector Prof. Dr. Mehmet Ali Özcan stated his excitement on witnessing a dream that started 15 years ago coming true. He went on to say “It would take very long to summarize the importance of this constitution. Nevertheless, the most important thing is to transform this constitution into a product that supplies the basic needs of humans with the light of science, independent of the capital.”
The chair of IBG’s Board of Directors Prof. Dr. Figen Coşkun said “As the Covid-19 pandemic has shown us, the investment made on health has a strategic importance for our country. Being aware of the responsibility, IBG gives great importance to the studies on vaccines and drugs. I deeply wish that this infrastructure will be beneficial to our country, facilitate the studies on molecular, microbiological and toxicological preclinical analysis and contribute to one of the aims of the 11th Development Plan of our President, which is to develop national drugs.”
Dr. Soner Gündemir, director of the Industrial R&D Program and Head of the Drug Analysis and Control Labs at IBG, noted that it will be possible for human trials to begin with the experiment results that our laboratories will supply from now on, and they will be able to provide service to companies all around the world.
After the talks, two partnership protocols on preclinical drug studies were signed between Dr. Gündemir and RS Research A.Ş. and Hasbiotech A.Ş. biotech companies.
At the end of the ceremony, visitors had the opportunity to visit the GLP certified laboratories.