It is said that President Erdoğan will make a statement next week regarding the joint production of the vaccine developed by BioNTech in Turkey. Nezih Barut, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Abdi İbrahim İlaç, made a statement to the WORLD regarding the rumors that “Abdi İbrahim will produce the vaccine” and said, “Our negotiations with BioNTtech are continuing. “But no agreement has been made yet,” he said.
While Turkey is waiting for the approval process for the Sinovac vaccine coming from China, it is rumored in the Ankara lobbies that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will give new good news about the COVID-19 vaccine next week. While it was reported in the corridors of the Ministry of Health that an agreement had been reached to produce the BioNTech vaccine in Turkey and that the details would be announced by President Erdoğan, all eyes turned to Turkish pharmaceutical companies with the infrastructure suitable for this production. Minister of Industry and Technology Mustafa Varank made a statement at the end of last week that the BioNTech vaccine would be produced in Turkey, and the news about the “Biontürk appointment” had a great impact. Now behind the scenes, BioNTech’s boss Prof. Dr. Recalling Uğur Şahin’s words, “We did not give the production of the vaccine in Turkey and Germany to Pfizer,” it is said that an agreement will definitely be made with a Turkish company. In his statement on the subject, it was also noted that Minister Varank had assigned TÜBİTAK to the agreement, and it was also stated that TÜBİTAK executives had been shuttling between BioNTech and Ankara for nearly a month.
Experts state that the FDA-approved COVID-19 vaccine, developed by BioNTech with mRNA technology, requires a different biotechnological infrastructure and comment, “This production is not for everyone.” It is said in the health lobbies that this stalwart is Abdi İbrahim, which has production facilities in Algeria and Kazakhstan as well as Turkey. Because Mustafa Varank’s statement, “Three companies received permission from the Ministry of Health for vaccine production in Turkey,” also shows that alternatives are limited. Nezih Barut, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Abdi İbrahim İlaç Sanayi, to whom we asked about the allegations, made special statements to the WORLD. “We received the permission to produce the vaccine in December. We had the means, the facility, to produce the vaccine, we applied and received permission. There are a few companies in Turkey that have received this permission. Like everyone else, we are in talks with certain companies to produce vaccines in Turkey. One of them is Biontech. “We do not have an agreement right now,” said Barut, adding that negotiations are continuing.
We have the strength to make additional investments
Underlining that they are willing to produce BioNTech’s vaccine in Turkey, Barut stated that they have the financial and infrastructure power to quickly start production by making additional investments as soon as an agreement is reached. Barut also made the following assessment regarding the comments “A vaccine with this technology cannot be produced in Turkey”: “We can currently produce the Sinovac vaccine, we know that technology, but we do not know BioNTech’s technology. We have the capacity to make whatever additional investment is required in a short time. “We can achieve this in every aspect, that’s why we are willing.”
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