Turkey may be Europe's sixth largest pharmaceutical industry, but it's looking to ascend the ranks with a boost from GE Healthcare ($GE). The company has launched a new collaborative research scheme to support Turkey's bioprocessing development and manufacturing.
The scheme is offered through GE's Fast Trak Bioprocessing Technology and Training Laboratory, based at the company's Turkey Innovation Center in Istanbul, the company said in a statement. The facility joins similar sites in the U.S., U.K., China, India and Sweden, and offers access to GE Healthcare's technology for drug discovery, protein science and bioprocessing research.
While the lab has already offered customers practical training and process development, it will now be available to successful applicants from universities and research institutions, complementing Turkey's Scientific and Technological Research Council's strategy to support R&D growth, which includes grant programs and industry-academia partnerships.
And it doesn't just offer access to equipment--it's also staffed by a team of local GE bioprocessing experts who can help build up the biomanufacturing skills base in Turkey.
About 3% to 4% of Turkey's exports are made up of "high-tech products," said Hasan Ali Çelik, Turkey's deputy minister of science, industry and technology, at the site's inauguration. Çelik wants to bump this up to 15% by focusing on the "critical sector" that is biopharma.
"We believe the products which will be developed in this laboratory will provide significant contribution to Turkey's economy and offer important services to humanity," Çelik said.
- here's the statement