Turkey ramps up pharmaceutical expansion
Amid a wave of government-driven nationalism, Turkey’s latest “national” project is to develop a strong pharmaceutical sector.
An emphasis on the “native and national” has lately become a central theme in the political rhetoric of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP). After projects for locally made tanks, warplanes and other weaponry, they are now calling for “national medicines.”
Turkey pays billions of dollars each year for imported medicines and medical devices as well as for the use of pharmaceutical patents and licenses, so the stated objective is a pharmaceutical drive in production and exports to keep all those billions at home. One of the main priorities to that effect is to lure expatriate Turkish scientists back to Turkey.
