Polifarma Provides Major Support to Marmara University

Polifarma Provides Major Support to Marmara University Polifarma Pharma, a 100 percent Turkish capital-owned company that contributes to society and the health sector in Turkey, inaugurated a laboratory that it donated with full equipment to the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the Faculty of Pharmacy of Marmara University in the names of its founder and honorary president the late Pharmacist Necdet Nuri Kumrulu and Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors Chemical Engineer Vildan Kumrulu. Polifarma, a 100 percent Turkish capital-owned pharmaceutical company celebrating its 36th founding anniversary this year, donated laboratory equipment infrastructure to the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry Laboratory at the Faculty of Pharmacy of Marmara University. The laboratory inauguration took place on 11 May at a ceremony attended by Marmara University (M.Ü.) Rector Prof. Dr. Mustafa Kurt, M.Ü. Faculty of Pharmacy Dean Prof. Dr. Kübra Elçioğlu, M.Ü. Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry Chair Prof. Dr. İlkay Küçükgüzel, Polifarma Pharma Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors Vildan Kumrulu and Polifarma Pharma Chairman of the Board of Directors Ufuk Kumrulu and Polifarma Pharma executives. M.Ü. Faculty of Pharmacy Dean Prof. Dr. Kübra Elçioğlu thanked Polifarma Pharma for this important contribution to the faculty.

"Through our value-added projects, we go beyond being a manufacturer"

Speaking at the inauguration, Polifarma Pharma Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors Vildan Kumrulu stated that supporting Marmara University Faculty of Pharmacy, from which Polifarma Honorary President and founder Pharmacist Necdet Kumrulu graduated, is very meaningful to them. She emphasized that they work to become a more productive, successful company that benefits society more, saying "Life First." Noting that they continuously develop themselves by investing in youth and innovation, Kumrulu continued: "Our vision is to be a global company. We believe we can seize competitive opportunities that will advance us globally by contributing to education and science. Through value-added projects, we go beyond being a manufacturer. We are aware that this is only possible through contributions to education and development. In this context, through the "Pharmacist Necdet Nuri Kumrulu Scholarship Fund" we launched in cooperation with Turkish Education Association (TED), we support students of the Faculty of Pharmacy, and through the TED Young Torch Project, we support the education of girls studying in high school and university. This laboratory, which we inaugurated today, is very valuable in this sense. Through the research conducted here, we will make important contributions to science, education and development."

"We believe that research and development is the only condition for being a global player"

Polifarma Chairman of the Board of Directors Ufuk Kumrulu stated: "As Polifarma, drawing inspiration from the vision of our Honorary President and founder, my late father Pharmacist Necdet Nuri Kumrulu, we are a global company that produces rather than consumes technology. On this path that he began by establishing Memleket Pharmacy in Ordu in 1979, we work every day to become a more productive, successful company that benefits the world and health. For the future, we believe that research and development is the only condition for being a global player. At our EU-GMP certified production facility spanning 55,000 square meters, we established Pol-Arge, our research and development hub, in 2017. Aware of the importance of quality in health, our continuously developing production lines, new logistics center and expert workforce strengthen us day by day, as we work for our country and the world."

"By strengthening our research infrastructure, we will train qualified pharmacists preferred by the sector"

In his remarks, Marmara University Rector Prof. Dr. Mustafa Kurt noted that in addition to education and teaching activities, conducting scientific research for the benefit of society and providing various services is a duty of universities, and recalled that Marmara University earned the research university designation from the Research-Focused Specialization Program in 2022. Stating that by strengthening the research infrastructure of the Faculty of Pharmacy, which has national accreditation credentials in education, qualified pharmacists preferred by the sector will be trained, Prof. Dr. Mustafa Kurt thanked Polifarma Pharma Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors Vildan Kumrulu for providing education and research infrastructure support to both undergraduate and postgraduate students and to academics conducting qualified research.

"With this laboratory we will take our current studies to a more advanced level"

Prof. Dr. İlkay Küçükgüzel, Chair of the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at M.Ü. Faculty of Pharmacy where the research laboratory was established, said that with this donation and the resulting facility, researchers and postgraduate students now have access to a laboratory suited to contemporary needs. Noting that master's and doctoral graduates they trained over more than 30 years have taken on important roles in academia and the pharmaceutical industry, Prof. Dr. Küçükgüzel concluded her remarks as follows: "With this donation, as we are honored to count as our alumni Polifarma Pharma and its late founder Pharmacist Necdet Nuri Kumrulu, we will do everything we can to perpetuate his memory. Although our department has made important contributions to our country and the sector through its scientific outputs, trained researchers and achieved international recognition through publications and citations, this facility resulting from Polifarma Pharma's support places new responsibility on our shoulders. Now we will proceed with our students and external stakeholders toward the goal of taking current studies to a more advanced level, signing on to industry collaboration projects and culminating with products that will support the national pharmaceutical sector."

30 researchers can work simultaneously

In the laboratory donated by Chemical Engineer Vildan Kumrulu and the late Pharmacist Necdet Nuri Kumrulu and inaugurated today, 30 researchers can work simultaneously. In the laboratory, organic synthesis processes will be carried out for the production of pharmaceutical raw materials and drug candidate molecules, purity analyses of the produced raw materials will be conducted, physical and spectral characterization will be performed, and when necessary, physical and chromatographic techniques will be applied for the purification of pharmaceutical raw materials.