After its best financial year to date – posting revenues of USD 27.3 billion in 2021 – Gilead has said yes to localization in Turkey. The California-based company, known for its HIV and oncology treatments, announced a USD 60 million investment in Turkey, partnering with local player Pharmactive to produce some of its hepatitis and HIV medicines in the country.
The investment, part of Gilead’s “In Turkey for Turkey” effort, will help them address 70 percent of local demand. “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,” said Şebnem Girgin, the company’s general manager in Turkey. “We are glad to be producing our innovative products in Turkey and to bring this know-how to our country.”
For his part, Pharmactive’s chairman, Haluk Sancak, explained that their plant is one of the five most productive in the 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,” he said. “Pharmactive is now one of the four production bases of Gilead in the world for these products. We are proud of this.”
Also present at the June 14 announcement was Burak Dağlıoğlu, head of the Investment Office of the Presidency of the Republic of Turkey. “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,” he said. “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.”
Through this investment, according to a statement from Dağlıoğlu’s office, Turkey “aims to transform into a potential pharmaceutical export hub. The partnership will enable Turkey to manufacture new therapies and will eliminate the need of importing pharmaceuticals worth of USD 250 million until 2024.”
