Minister of Industry and Technology Mehmet Fatih Kacır attended the "R&D Support Laboratories Support Project Launch for Life Sciences SMEs Towards Global Competitiveness" event at Boğaziçi University Kandilli Campus. In his speech here, Minister Kacır noted that the health sector is one of the sectors most affected by innovative technologies.
Stating that the global market size in the health sector is predicted to reach 2027 trillion dollars in 10, Kacır said, “In the health sector; Countries that not only offer new approaches to old problems, but also redefine the health sector and technologies, produce solutions, are more dynamic, respond quickly to developments and create an effective health ecosystem will be effective. “We see this transformation as a window of opportunity for our country to improve its capacity to offer competitive products and services in high technology fields in line with our National Technology Move targets.” said.
“SUPPORT FOR INVESTMENT PROJECTS”
Reminding that, according to the news on the official website of the Ministry, the Smart Life and Health Products and Technologies Road Map was put into effect in 2022, Kacır said, “We have accelerated our localization move in pharmaceuticals, medical devices and health information technologies, which we have determined as critical and strategic. Last year, we issued incentive certificates for 404 new investments in the health sector. We mobilized more than 62 billion Liras of investment. We paved the way for more than 11 thousand qualified employment. Within the scope of the Technology-Focused Industrial Move Program, which we implemented to encourage value-added production and reduce the current account deficit; "We support 22 investment projects with a total value exceeding 56 billion, from biosimilar drugs to cancer and autoimmune drugs, from orthopedic devices and prostheses to innovative generic drugs." he said.
Sharing the information that more than 69 research projects are carried out in 700 R&D centers within the leading companies operating in the field of health, Kacır continued as follows:
“To date, we have supported more than 3 thousand projects in the field of health technologies of more than 700 technology startups in our technoparks. In our TÜBİTAK support programs, we prioritize studies in the health sector under the headings of R&D and innovation. “Within the scope of our TÜBİTAK scholarship and support programs, we have provided a total of 21 billion liras of support to more than 22 projects and nearly 9 thousand people in the field of health in the last 500 years.”
“EXAMPLE SUCCESS STORY”
Stating that they have established infrastructures that produce world-class scientific research and enable their transformation into innovative products and services, Kacır said, “Boğaziçi LifeSci, which has carried out exemplary and pioneering work in many aspects in our country since 2010, is one of them. Our researchers have carried out more than 100 scientific research projects in this center, where advanced research activities are carried out in groundbreaking technologies in the field of life sciences. He made a total of 1200 high impact publications. "It creates exemplary success stories with the development of academic entrepreneurship activities that it supports by producing technologies that will contribute to the development of our country's health entrepreneurship ecosystem." said.
Prof. Dr. Rana Sanyal and his team; Minister Kacır said that all development activities were carried out in Turkey, whose intellectual rights belonged entirely to Turkey, and that he developed the first drug candidate of our country that received approval from the Turkish Medicines and Medical Devices Agency (TITCK) of the Ministry of Health for clinical research, and added: "What makes this tremendous success story important is It is not just the discovery of a drug that offers hope to patients on a global scale. It is very valuable to be able to deliver a molecule from the laboratory to patients for the first time with our own resources and to prove that this can be done. Our teacher and his team turned their academic studies, which were largely carried out within our center, into a technology initiative. I believe that the drug developed by our teacher and his team will successfully complete Phase 2 and Phase 3 studies and turn into a global scale initiative.” said.
“WE OFFERED IT AT THE SERVICE OF OUR RESEARCHERS”
Kacır, who informed that they have implemented a pioneering and exemplary infrastructure for Turkey within the scope of the Competitive Sectors Program with the support of the European Union, said: “With this project, which was implemented with a new investment of 5 million euros, Turkey's first pre-clinical animal imaging center, pilot production and first scale production facility, We have offered an exemplary infrastructure, including a clean room at international standards, to the service of our entrepreneurs and researchers. We have created thematic incubation and acceleration programs to support entrepreneurs and SMEs. We also strengthen the position of Turkish researchers and entrepreneurs in the European Science and Innovation Ecosystem with the projects we carry out with the support of the European Union, including this infrastructure we have launched. We ensure that they contribute more effectively to the European research and innovation ecosystem.” he said.
