Novartis Türkiye Continues Local Production with Oncology Product

Novartis Group, which has been operating in Turkey for more than 60 years with 4 divisions—Novartis Pharmaceuticals, Novartis Oncology, Sandoz Pharmaceuticals and Alcon—and production facilities, contributes to Turkey's high-technology manufacturing with high-value-added medicines produced at its facilities in Turkey.

  As a significant production hub on a global scale, Novartis Turkey supports localization in pharmaceutical manufacturing in line with the country's localization policies and continues pioneering work in this area.

"We Are Turkey's Largest Pharmaceutical Exporter with USD 1.5 Billion Generated Over the Past 10 Years"

As one of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies in healthcare services, Dr. Altan Demirdere, President of Novartis Group Turkey and General Manager of Sandoz Turkey, noted that the group has sustained its commitment to Turkey through investments over 60 years: "We achieved USD 130 million in exports from our production facilities in 2017. With a total of USD 1.5 billion generated over the past 10 years, we have become Turkey's largest pharmaceutical exporter. Leading the sector in clinical research, we invested approximately USD 60 million in 114 clinical studies in 2017. All of this is the most important indicator of our confidence, as a global company, in Turkey's young and dynamic population and market. Therefore, as Novartis, we will continue to strengthen our presence in Turkey by increasing our investments. In this regard, we continue our work in line with the strategies of our government in the area of local production. With our medicines and investments that will make a difference in patients' lives, we will continue our commitment to the Turkish people," he said.

First Locally-Produced Oncology Product Introduced to Market

Novartis Oncology, advancing with the aim of contributing to the national economy through localization, is rapidly continuing its work in local production in line with the group's strategies. Since 2014, Novartis Oncology Turkey has been pursuing local production initiatives and has achieved successful results in this field. Pınar Üstündağ, General Manager of Novartis Oncology Turkey, emphasized that as a result of these efforts, a medicine in the oncology portfolio that has been revolutionary in the field of Chronic Myeloid Leukemia has begun to be produced locally and reached patients in recent months. Üstündağ stated, "As Novartis Oncology Turkey, we have been pursuing our local production plans since 2014 with the aim of providing sustainable contribution to our country's objectives and policies regarding local production; we take pride and pleasure in being a pioneer in this area. In addition to our locally-produced medicine at our Kurtköy production facilities, we plan to introduce 2 additional locally-produced medicines to patients in August 2019," she said.