
1940 - 1975
Fatma Mehveş encouraged her son, İbrahim Hayri Barut, to train as a pharmacist and to take over the running of the laboratory, and after earning his diploma from the Pharmacist School of Science of Istanbul University he was appointed as the manager of the facility in 1940.
Having witnessed Fatma Mehveş Barut’s efforts to sustain the laboratory, İbrahim Hayri Barut visited the Çemberlitaş laboratory at every opportunity and worked at every stage of production. He had a keen interest in machinery and was skilled enough to repair broken equipment. He spent many nights close to the distilled water boiler and would go to college the next morning with hands covered in coal dust but succeeded in graduating from college under these conditions.
İbrahim Hayri Barut’s first act was to rename the laboratory the "Abdi İbrahim Barut Tıbbi Ecza Laboratuvarı” (Abdi İbrahip Barut Medical Drugs Laboratory). Then, for the attestation of the title “Abdi İbrahim Barut” by the notary public, he prepared and signed a document stating that he would be engaged in the production of medical drugs as the only authorized person in the laboratory and sent the document to all relevant companies. He would retain this role throughout his business life.
He ceased the production of galenic preparations to focus on medical preparations. At the time, the continuing World War II hostilities made it impossible to import equipment from Europe, and so he shared his experience and knowledge with technicians and was able to renew the machinery.
When the war finished, he imported two cutting edge technology tablet machines from Denmark and the United Kingdom. He kitted out the lab with ampoule fillers and sealers and granule machines made in the United Kingdom and obtained the latest Super-Heidelberger automatic printing machines for the printing of packaging as well as Mineldex printing machines for ampoules. After expanding the product range through technological renovations, he launched production of 100 different ampoules, other than preparations, in a 400 square-meter laboratory in Çemberlitaş in 1948. The number of staff was increased to 30 and three doctors and two pharmacists were employed to work in the scientific bureau.
It was at this time that Türkiye started to benefit from the Marshall Plan, through which the United States allocated funds for the development of European countries that had been affected by World War II. Between 1948 and 1959, a couple of pharmaceutical laboratories made use of Marshall Aid loans to upgrade their buildings and technologies, beginning the transition from laboratories to factories in the pharmaceutical sector. Ibrahim Hayri Barut was opposed to foreign capital, and in 1953 he began production with factory technologies in a new building equipped with modern machinery built using his own capital on land purchased in Vefa (Revani Çelebi Sok. No. 5).
İbrahim Hayri Barut strongly opposed the Foreign Capital Incentive Law (No. 6224 dated January 18, 1954), which made it possible for foreign capital and enterprises working in the same fields to benefit from all the rights, exemptions and conveniences provided to domestic capital and enterprises. He would stress the importance of the national pharmaceutical industry in all circumstances and on all platforms.
Manufactured by Pharmacist İbrahim Hayri Barut with superior performance, the preparations became a market favourites. He produced the pomade and tablet forms of Sulp-Hamide, the first sulp-hamide preparation in Türkiye, and the first penicillin preparation, Thiocilline. He became the first person in Türkiye to equip a laboratory with a printing press. He gained a considerable reputation with his medicines and his bold and innovative approach made Abdi İbrahim the third-largest pharmaceutical company in Türkiye.
İbrahim Hayri Barut, with his entrepreneurial personality, never shied away from addressing the problems encountered by pharmacists and pharmaceutical manufacturers and was a member of the Pharmacists Union Administrative Committee. He became the second chairman of the Turkish Pharmacists' Association and the Turkish Society of Medical Contractors Industry and Laboratories Association. He was also a member of the entrepreneurship committee of the Istanbul Chamber of Pharmacists. In all of these organizations he addressed the problems faced by the Turkish pharmacy sector and championed the development of a national pharmaceutical industry. İbrahim Hayri Barut died suddenly in 1961, after which his wife Belma Barut became fully responsible for the Abdi İbrahim Pharmaceuticals Factory. Rather than considering those who applied for management positions from outside the family, Belma Barut entrusted the company to Gynaecologist Mekin Alpay, who was the husband of her sister-in-law Podiatrist Emine Alpay, in 1961. Barut continued her duties on the board of directors, believing that “there should be a reliable person who can take over the management until the children grow up and take control”. Barut managed this custodian process with great success, ensuring the continued operation of the plant.
The Abdi İbrahim Pharmaceuticals Factory continued to develop with new preparations under the management of Mekin Alpay, M.D., Obstetrics and Gynaecology Specialist, who added drugs to their product range from well-known factories in such countries as the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and France from 1962 onward. Along with her spouse Ahmet Kamil Esirtgen, Nesrin Barut Esirtgen, who held 50 percent of the shares of the company, provided support to Alpay during his mandate.
Abdi İbrahim became a joint-stock company and took its present name in 1975 thanks to the contributions of Ahmet Kamil Esirtgen.