July 13, 2020

Abdi ibrahim and novelfarma unite forces to manufacture covid-19 treatment protocol medicine in record time

EFFORTS MOBILIZED FOR FAVIPIRAVIR IN THE STRUGGLE TO FIGHT THE CORONAVIRUS

The leader of the Turkish pharmaceuticals industry Abdi İbrahim and Novelfarma have entered a strategic partnership to carry out the first manufacture in Turkey of the medication containing the active ingredient Favipiravir, which was developed by Novelfarma and taken into the COVID-19 treatment protocol. Included in the treatment protocol in China, where the infection initially appeared in February, the medication with the active ingredient Favipiravir was recently incorporated into the currently expanded treatment guidelines of the Turkish Ministry of Health on June 19.

Abdi İbrahim, the leader of the Turkish pharmaceuticals industry, deployed its R&D power and experience to complete all preparations for the technology transfer in the space of only 1 week, and the drug was manufactured for the first time in Turkey at international standards at its high-tech Esenyurt facilities. Novelfarma was the only corporation in Turkey to make a donation of 200,000 tablets to the Ministry of Health, after which the first export of the medication took place.

Turkey’s leading pharmaceuticals company Abdi İbrahim continues to assume a pioneering role in the fight against COVID-19 in Turkey with its 108 years of expertise and its strong production infrastructure. At the start of the pandemic, Abdi İbrahim had met the extraordinary challenge of procuring the raw material for the medication with the active ingredient chloroquine phosphate from India and China, manufacturing it and making a donation of 1.6 million tablets to the Ministry of Health. Now the company has taken on another strategic role in the manufacture of the medication developed by Novelfarma with the active ingredient Favipiravir.

Abdi İbrahim Board Chairman Nezih Barut: “We are passing through a historic period. All of our focus is on fulfilling our mission to heal life.” Commenting that Abdi ibrahim is a well-established brand with 108 years of experience in the pharmaceuticals sector, Nezih Barut said, “History assigns well-established brands different responsibilities. For more than a century, we have been working to improve life. We are proud to be a national brand and leader in Turkey. During these days of the pandemic that confronts our country, we awake every day with the same awareness of our responsibility. After manufacturing and making a donation to the Ministry of our medication with the basic ingredient chloroquine phosphate, we are now

proud to join Novelfarma, one of the most reputable pharmaceutical companies in Turkey and the one to develop Favipiravir, in hosting the manufacture of this drug that is one of the most effective medications used in the treatment of the infection. Producing the medication in Turkey and delivering it to patients was the most critical issue for us. A transfer of technology was essential. Relying on our experience in such operations, our technical expertise, our management skills, and our understanding of cooperative partnerships, we allocated every resource available in one week and realized the first manufacture of Favipiravir in Turkey. We thank all of the Abdi İbrahim and Novelfarma employees who made every effort to deliver this medication to our patients in this extraordinary process.”

Also, in the position of President of the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association of Turkey, Nezih Barut had this to add regarding this period: “With the announcement of the pandemic, we at Abdi İbrahim focused all our attention on our primary mission of healing. We formed dynamic work groups of representatives from among the medical teams in the company to handle processes that ranged from R&D and licensing to business development. One of main goals was to extend the scope of our know-how, our high-tech production capacities and our powerful infrastructure for the benefit of other players in the sector working on treatment solutions for Covid-19. We woke up each morning with the awareness of the historical period we were living in. In addition to the medications we donated to the Ministry of Health at the very start of the period, our visionary ad dynamic response to our business partner Novelfarma to provide production support was a natural consequence of this awareness and our quick reflex.”

Commenting that the importance of the domestic pharmaceuticals industry was once again emphasized in this period, Nezih Barut continued by saying, “We have always believed in the power of investment. We need to produce more, export more in order to ensure R&D more of a share in our business. At Abdi İbrahim, investing so much in our production facilities has been a strategic decision. We strongly believe that Turkey can be a production base for both chemical and biotechnological drugs.”

Novelfarma Board Chairman Yasin Alp remarked, “We received the licensing for our domestically and nationally produced product on July 10. Right now, all world rights for the product belong to Novelfarma. The active ingredient was produced exclusively for us under a special agreement. We developed the product at our own R&D facilities in less than a month. We carried out the bioequivalence study again in the short space of one month. We are proud of our youthful R&D team, where all our personnel are under the age of 35. Other companies demanded higher prices despite the pandemic. Abdi İbrahim however stopped all its production and carried out the transfer of technology in record time so that production could take place. It is very important to understand that this medication is of completely domestic and national manufacture. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the Abdi İbrahim team, and particularly Board Chairman Nezih Barut for their work. We have obtained our license and the donations that we promised were delivered to the drug warehouses of the Public Health General Directorate on July 11, followed by their distribution to all provinces by air ambulance.”

Yasin Alp continued his comments by saying, “We are the only company to make a donation and this way, we were instrumental in bringing the price of the product down by 80 percent. The cost to the State was thus reduced. We at Novelfarma develop and obtain licensing for drugs for orphans as well as oncological medications. We have never been subsidized by the state or received a donation for any of our projects. All of our efforts have been covered by our shareholder’s equity. At this time, we have close to 30 licensing applications in process and another 50 R&D projects underway.”